The former High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, said on Tuesday that a victory for the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in the elections would amount to «the endorsement of a genocidal policy, a policy of exterminating the Palestinians».
«Israel has me on tenterhooks,» Borrell admitted in comments to the press shortly before presenting, at the University of La Laguna, the book *The Rollercoaster: Chronicle of a Crisis and How It Was Overcome, 2019-2024* by the economist Mario Marcel, former Minister of Finance in Chile under Gabriel Boric’s government and former President of the country’s Central Bank.
The book, with a foreword by Borrell, in which Marcel combines political memoirs, economic analysis and an account of the management of several consecutive crises, was presented as part of the fifth edition of Campus América at the University of La Laguna, which this year features Chile as its guest country.
Israel: Borrell warns against a religious-autocratic course
Borrell has pointed out that Spain is said to be polarised, but he has warned: «Go to Israel and you will see what polarisation really means in a state that is clearly drifting towards religious autocracy.»
The former European High Representative has framed the Israeli elections as part of an «exciting and interesting» global electoral cycle, in which he has included Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s victory «against all odds» in Brazil and the defeat in Serbia of Aleksandar Vučić at the hands of the Students‘ Party, which, he said, represents «mobilised youth» standing up against a pro-Russian regime with a fragile democracy.
Europe's young people are suffering from a lack of prospects
Borrell has described the events in Serbia as part of the «autumn of discontent» currently sweeping across Europe, with «an almost revolutionary process» in France «spilling over into Italy».
«In Europe, there is a very generational dynamic of discontent. European young people are undoubtedly facing a clear lack of prospects,» he reflected.
Spain: Borrell condemns violence during protests
On the subject of Spain, he stated that «there are also some pockets of violence that must be roundly condemned».
In his view, it has been shown in Spain that «people can protest, for example, for the right to housing, without having to smash the windows of shops and businesses».
When asked whether the protests in France, Italy and Barcelona might be part of a hybrid strategy encouraged by Russia, Borrell said he did not know, but that «something is going on», adding that «from Ceuta to Barcelona, there are certain parallels in the movements sparked by calls on social media, and it is not entirely clear who is behind them».
According to Borrell, immigration is being used as a political weapon
In his view, «the political manipulation of immigration», rather than immigration itself, «has become a political weapon everywhere and is a serious problem for European society».
«We are not sufficiently aware of how much we need new blood, of how much we need a workforce to join our society, because we are not having enough children,» he warned.
Borrell has argued that there should be a debate on how to organise and regulate immigration, how to prevent irregular entry, and how to integrate immigrants.
«That’s all well and good. What I find unacceptable, however, is this phobia of immigrants, which has become the political rallying cry of ‚immigrants out‘,» he lamented.
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