Watch the full video with our guest Enrique Santiago, MP for Unidas Podemos and General Secretary of the Communist Party of Spain (PCE).
The Corona-virus has hit the EU unprepared, but in different ways and with different effects depending on the countries. Most tragic were the effects on those countries whose healthcare and social systems have been emaciated by decades of austerity policies. Thus, the pandemic has increased inequalities not only inside the states but also between the Member States of the EU. This presents the parties of the radical left with a challenge and calls for a re-examination of their strategies.
Interviewee
Enrique Santiago. Lawyer, Deputy in the Spanish Parliament for Unidas Podemos and Secretary General of the Communist Party of Spain (PCE), as well as member of the Federal Board of Izquierda Unida. As a lawyer, he has played a leading role in such important cases as the Pinochet case or the Scilingo and Bárcenas cases on corruption in the Spanish People’s Party. He has recently collaborated as a legal advisor in the Havana Dialogues on the peace process in Colombia. Previously, he was General Secretary of the Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid (CEAR) and later of IEPALA (Instituto de Estudios Politicos para America Latina y Africa). In the course of his work for these organizations, he has played a leading role in the public protests against the treatment of migrants on the Canary Islands and the Strait of Gibraltar during the so-called ‘crisis of the Cayucos’.
Moderators:
Walter Baier, Austrian economist and former National Chairman of the Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ). He was an editor of the Austrian weekly Volksstimme and since 2007 he is the Political Coordinator of transform! europe.
Marga Ferré, Secretary for Political Elaboration of Izquierda Unida, Spain, and member of the transform! europe Board.
The interview was simultaneously translated from Spanish to English and vice versa.