Progressive leaders of mostly small to mid-sized countries held a rally in Barcelona on Saturday, reflecting an emerging coalition of middle powers positioning themselves as alternatives to nationalist politics.
At the gathering, convened by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, participants avoided mentioning US President Donald Trump by name, but they called for a “reinforced multilateral order.”
Many among the global left see Sánchez as a progressive hero for defying Trump, while in Spain, the American president has distracted from Sánchez’s domestic challenges.
The recent defeat of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who was ousted by a fellow conservative rather than a leftist challenger, nevertheless showed that Europe’s far-right “wave can be stopped,” Sánchez said.