Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, one of the biggest critics of the US and Israel’s bombing campaigns in the Middle East, told attendees at the opening that “democracy cannot be taken for granted” before ending the day with his slogan “no to war”.
He was joined by Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who said she would put forward a motion against military intervention in Cuba, and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Sanchez and Sheinbaum warmly greeted each other on the Mexican leader’s first visit to Spain since taking office in October 2024, though she insisted there had never been a “diplomatic crisis” between the two nations.
Ties were strained in 2019 when Mexico insisted Spain apologise for historical abuses during the Spanish conquest and colonisation of the Americas.
Spain’s King Felipe VI last month acknowledged “a lot of abuse” had happened in the colonial period in the Americas.
Call for UN reform
Sanchez called for reform of the United Nations a day after he had urged a reshaped multilateral order to challenge “those who consider it dead or work to undermine its foundations”.
Several attendees insisted the meeting, held the same day as a meeting of far-right European leaders in Milan in Italy, was not an anti-Trump jamboree.
It follows the defeat of Hungarian nationalist leader Viktor Orban in a general election on Sunday, seen as a setback for Europe’s far-right parties that had looked to him as a model.
Progressives have hailed the result as proof that entrenched populist governments can be defeated at the ballot box.
The Barcelona event was launched by Brazil and Spain in 2024 after far-right parties made significant gains in European Parliament elections.
The first two editions of the event were held at the UN and the previous one was held in Chile last year.
Sanchez, in power since 2018, has emerged as a prominent figure for Europe’s disillusioned progressives, who see him as one of the few remaining openly leftist voices in a continent increasingly dominated by right-wing politics.