Luis Angel Sanz

Teresa Aburto Madrid

Madrid

Updated Friday, March 1, 2024-13:09

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The President of the European Parliament,

Roberta Metsola

, stated this Friday that "if we do not support Ukraine, everything we promised and everything we inherited risks falling apart."

At the inauguration of the

International Forum of EL MUNDO

Europe, a decisive year

, which this newspaper celebrates on the occasion of its 35th anniversary, the European leader has followed in the footsteps of the president of the European Commission, who this week warned about the risks that represents the Russian threat to Europe and its future.

Metsola has warned that Russia "represents an existential threat to our Union, to our values ​​and to our freedom."

In his initial intervention, Metsola made it clear that "we cannot take democracy for granted; we cannot take for granted the freedoms that Europe offers."

"Too many Europeans remember what it means to live without freedom. And as Russia's illegal and expansionist aggression enters its third year of war in Ukraine, against our values ​​and our way of life, we have to remember what is at stake for Ukraine and for Europe," he added.

With enormous clarity, the Maltese leader has defended European values ​​as the main framework for common coexistence in the face of tyranny: "The freedom to live as we want, to seek our own happiness and to vote for whoever we want. To be equal before the law, read independent journalism, say what we want, disagree, meet, disagree without consequences."

Metsola has defended that "Europe will always defend peace", but "we know that a peace without dignity, without responsibility, without justice, is not a real peace."

The president of the European Parliament has been introduced by the director of EL MUNDO, Joaquín Manso, who has also warned of the "decisive moment" in which Spain and Europe find themselves due to "the increase in immigration on the Southern border", "the climate change" or, above all, by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Russian threat, which marks a "turning point" because "in this foundational task" in which the elections to the European Parliament have been framed, "the freedom"

The leader of the European Parliament has given her speech in the

Gallery of the Royal Collections in Madrid

about the challenges of the European Union at a key geopolitical, as well as electoral, moment, when the European elections are held on June 9, exactly within of 100 days.

Middle East

The leader of the European Parliament also referred to the war in the Middle East and recalled that the European Union and its institutions

"have pressed for a ceasefire"

to stop "the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza" after "the horrors of September 7 October".

Metsola has advocated for "the return of the hostages" and for "Hamas to stop acting with impunity."

To overcome the current situation, he has opted for "the two-state solution" that "gives perspective to the Palestinian people, security to Israel and allows Gaza to be run by legitimate Palestinian authorities."

This is how we get more aid to Gaza, how we save more lives and, above all, what is at the basis of a two-state solution.

One that gives perspective to the Palestinian people, security to Israel and allows Gaza to be run by legitimate Palestinian authorities.

Journalism

Metsola has made a passionate defense of freedom of expression and the role of the media in democracy and freedom in Europe and has highlighted that EL MUNDO in its 35 years of life "

has become a reference"

, in a "synonym of support for Spanish and European democracy."

The European leader could not help but remember "all the journalists who have paid with their lives "to safeguard our freedoms." And she has mentioned the EL MUNDO journalists José Luis López de Lacalle, Julio Fuentes Serrano and Julio Anguita Parrado, who were murdered by ETA or in different war conflicts throughout the world. The three are "icons of truth and light in a world that is too often dark and gloomy."

Metsola appeared before an audience that included MEPs, ambassadors and businessmen, as well as the leader of the opposition, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, and the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of the Government of Spain,

Diego Martínez Belío

.

Metsola subsequently held a discussion with the director of EL MUNDO,

Joaquín Manso

, in which he also reviewed current international and European economic affairs, with

the old continent at the crossroads

due to the war in Ukraine, the threats from the Russian president , Vladimir Putin, to the West and the rise of

Europhobic forces

that can affect the

Parliament

itself presided over by Roberta Metsola.