Spain’s acting prime minister has shown little courage in taming the pro-Hamas and anti-Israel rhetoric of his far-left political associates, even in the face of a diplomatic spat with Israel.
In an interview with the Spanish television program La Mirada Critica last week, Ione Belarra, secretary general of Unidas Podemos and minister of social rights in Spain’s socialist-communist coalition government, accused the government of Benjamin Netanyahu of committing “a genocide” that “is being broadcast on prime time.”
This followed days of statements in which she refused to condemn the barbarous attack of Hamas on Jewish civilians, pointing instead to the “error” in the “policy of Israel.”
In the interview she went further, asking acting Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez to break off diplomatic relations with Israel and impose sanctions on the country, including banning arms exports to the Jewish state.
Later that day, the Israeli embassy in Spain issued a statement with its own request to Sánchez: condemn “unequivocally” the “shameful statements” of some members of his government who have chosen to “align with the terrorism” of Hamas. Such statements, it added, “are not only absolutely immoral, but also endanger the security of the Jewish communities in Spain, exposing them to a flood of incidents and anti-Semitic attacks.”
Sánchez demurred.
In a response statement, signed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation—a ministry under the lead of his socialist party the PSOE—his government rejected “the falsehoods poured out” against unspecified public officials by Israel and warned that it does not accept “unfounded insinuations about them.”
“Any political leader can freely express positions as representative of a political party in a full democracy such as Spain,” the statement said.
Belarra quickly issued her own response through the social media network X.
“[Netahyahu’s] government is carrying out war crimes in the Gaza Strip—massive bombings, water and electricity cuts—they do not allow humanitarian aid to enter. … Reporting that genocide is not ‘aligning with Hamas,’ it is a democratic obligation. Silence, complicity with terror,” she posted.
As Spanish media have reported, her party, founded in 2013, received start-up money from the Iranian government. Founder Pablo Iglesias and his closest collaborators have received “between 600,000 and 700,000 euros per year” from the Iranian dictatorship since 2013, according to a report by the Central Unit for Economic and Fiscal Crime, a division of the National Police.
The payments were made through 360 Global Media, the company that produced the Iranian television station in Spain, whose feature program was Fort Apache, presented and directed by Pablo Iglesias. It ran until 2019.
The police report also states that the payments were specifically for the “operation, enhancement, advertising, and maintenance of Podemos.”
The Iranian dictatorship has used a network of companies registered in different tax havens to finance 360 Global Media, which is based in Madrid. The police investigation has tracked the transfer of millions of euros that this company, chaired by the Iranian Alizadeh Azimi Mahmoud, has received since 2012 from different parts of the world.
The same police report also found that the Iranian government injected a total of 9.3 million euros into the Spanish subsidiary of Hispanic TV through the company 360 Global Media in the three years preceding 2022. Of that total, two million euros would have gone to Pablo Iglesias, his two producers, and his immediate circle of collaborators.
Belarra joined Podemos during its founding year and has held leadership positions in the party since 2015. She is a close friend and collaborator of Iglesias’ domestic partner, Irene Montero, with whom he also has three children.
The police report detailed that 99% of registered international payments were under 40,000 euros, the maximum amount that could be transferred from Iran until international sanctions were lifted.
Iglesias admitted during a broadcast that his political and media activities received funding from Iran but justified it as “the sealed train wagon” that took Lenin to Russia to start the Bolshevik Revolution.
