Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez delivers a fiery speech at the United Nations General Assembly, defending multilateralism and international law while taking aim at Trump-era unilateralist politics without naming Donald Trump directly. Sánchez also sharply criticizes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s actions in Gaza and calls for stronger international accountability. He pushes for UN reform, nuclear disarmament, AI regulation, and proposes a woman from Latin America as the next UN Secretary-General. His remarks add another major voice to the growing debate over global diplomacy, Gaza, and the future of the international order.
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#PedroSanchez #Spain #UNGA #UNGA2026 #UnitedNations #SanchezSpeech #TrumpPolitics #DonaldTrump #Netanyahu #IsraelGaza #GazaWar #GazaConflict #InternationalLaw #Multilateralism #UNReform #NuclearDisarmament #AIRegulation #GlobalPolitics #WorldNews #BreakingNews #SpainNews #SanchezUNSpeech #UnitedNationsNews #GazaNews #MiddleEast
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NewsTranscript
00:00Last eight years, my country has opposed all wars of aggression wherever they have started,
00:06whether it's in Ukraine, in Lebanon or in Iran. We have refused to increase our military spending
00:12to 5% of GDP and we've done everything possible to avoid aggressions that run counter to the UN
00:19charter, placing sanctions on the Russian aggressors, imposing an arms embargo on the
00:26Netanyahu government in Israel and prohibiting the use of our territory to deploy an aggression that
00:32was against international law and unequivocally condemning the genocide that Netanyahu is still
00:38perpetrating in Gaza. Ladies and gentlemen, I come here to speak to you from this rostrum with
00:46but one goal, to defend what so many are trying to destroy. I have come to defend the principles
00:55and ambitions that inspired the creation of this organisation 81 years ago. Principles and
01:01ambitions that different governments present here disregard or seek to dismantle. Eight years
01:10have gone by since I addressed this assembly for the first time and since then several things have
01:16changed in the world and I regret to say that things haven't changed, well not many things have changed
01:23changed for the better but for the worse. In 2018 the 193 countries that make up this body
01:31had just adopted the 2030 agenda and the majority of the leaders present here proudly showed off the
01:37STG's logo and we didn't do this because it was fashionable nor because we thought that it would be an
01:43easy
01:43journey. We did it because the majority of us believed in this common promise.
01:49Because we were convinced that peace, sustainability, equal opportunities were not ideological positions
01:57but rather a comprehensive part of the future of humanity. Today, however, these ideas are not only
02:04being called into question, they are being attacked by political actors and governments that want to take us
02:13back to a dark past. And I don't need to point them out, we all know who they are and
02:20what their modus operandi is.
02:23They start by questioning the rules, then they break them, knowing full well that nobody will dare to hold them
02:30accountable.
02:32They cut their contributions to multilateral bodies like this one, they point to their leaders and officials,
02:39they obstruct these organisations' ability to act, so then write them off as useless entities that we can do without.
02:48What they're doing nevertheless is a planned and coordinated demolition attempt that is presented as something that we can't stop
02:57and that's necessary.
02:58However, the reality is that it runs counter to the structural currents of history and is based on three misguided
03:06pillars.
03:06The first of these pillars is selfishness, the absurd belief that the world is a zero-sum game, where some
03:15winning must imply that others losing.
03:19The second pillar is ignorance, disregarding scientific evidence and assuming that there are countries that are so powerful
03:26that they can abuse all of the others and they don't need anyone else to prosper.
03:31And the third pillar, the worst, in my opinion, is cruelty.
03:36Cruelty that isn't even moved when it sees the ribs of a starving child or a hospital reduced to rubble.
03:46Over these eight years, I've seen these selfish, ignorant and cruel forces grow.
03:53I've seen how they took off their masks and seized power in many places, and then I saw them start
04:02illegal wars, massacre innocent civilians.
04:06I've seen them treat millions of human beings like livestock and take away aid from those suffering the most from
04:13poverty and disease.
04:14I've seen them pollute the atmosphere and also the ocean as if it's their own property and conspire to destroy
04:23this organisation and everything it represents.
04:26I'm saying this because bearing witness to these things has changed the way that I understand the world.
04:33However, it hasn't led me to lose hope because also over these eight years, I've seen wonderful things that allow
04:41me to still have confidence in humanity.
04:43For example, I've seen millions of people mobilised to defend nature, peace and civil rights.
04:48I've seen thousands of activists and public servants confront these reactionary powers, knowing full well that they're putting their professional
04:57careers and even their own lives at risk.
04:59I've seen scientists make progress that we thought was impossible, and I've seen many governments do things right, opting for
05:06cooperation, social justice and environmental sustainability.
05:12All of this has taught me something that I want to share with all of you, and that is that
05:17humanity is not intrinsically good or bad.
05:20Humanity can actually be both, and every day, every year, and in each and every crisis, we must decide how
05:28to act.
05:29The United Nations is one of the spaces where these decisions are made at the highest level.
05:36And the UN doesn't always do it well, of course, I myself on several occasions have called out the contradictions
05:43and lackings of this body.
05:45However, with the same belief, I must call out the fact that the majority of the voices that today insist
05:50on criticising the United Nations are not describing its failure.
05:53What they're doing is trying to cause its failure.
05:57And I must also say that multilateralism is the best tool that humanity has to manage its diversity and its
06:06interdependence, especially in globalised and multipolar worlds like the world we're living in today.
06:13And this is why what we need to do is up, ramp up our trust in this organisation, we must
06:21renew it and strengthen it so that this century, it can play the same key role that it plays played
06:28last century.
06:29And doing this will not be easy.
06:31However, the good news is that all of the guidance we need is right here in the United Nations Charter.
06:39However, in this charter, they wrote the best chapters, our forefathers wrote it, the men and women who saw the
06:50world burn.
06:52And even then, they dared to imagine a better future.
06:57These men and women laid down their wisdom and their hope in this charter.
07:02And they didn't ask us to keep it in a glass case.
07:06They asked us to fulfil it.
07:08They asked us to defend it and for us to turn back to it in times of uncertainty and extraordinary
07:18difficulty.
07:19And today is one of those times.
07:21And therefore, it's our duty to rise to the courage and the ambition present in this text, in the United
07:29Nations Charter.
07:30And this is why, ladies and gentlemen, we need to reform the Security Council so that all of the regions
07:35in the world have fair representation and so that we can do away with the right of veto of the
07:42permanent members.
07:42Because as the UN Charter sets out, no country should be judged in its own case, no matter how powerful
07:50they are.
07:51We therefore need to strengthen all of the other main bodies and reorganise the agency's funds and programmes and provide
08:00them with more resources and more executive capacity so that they can have a more decisive impact on the great
08:07challenges that beset humanity.
08:10We must strengthen bodies like the International Criminal Court so that they can investigate, prosecute and punish those that break
08:18the rules.
08:20It took humanity centuries to replace might is right with the rule of law.
08:25And we must not be the generation that backtracks on this.
08:31It's for this very reason that we must rebuild the nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament architecture to avoid a poorly
08:41designed security policy, bring us back to another global conflict.
08:45And we must impose strict regulations on the tech oligarchs who control the functioning of social networks and the development
08:53of artificial intelligence, because at the end of the day, the future of our children is more important than the
09:01pockets of these tech oligarchs.
09:03And of course, doing all of these things will require compromise, time, strong leadership, being able to build agreements, to
09:11listen, to look beyond our known reality and imagine a better alternative.
09:17And what I'm advocating for for this leadership is very clear.
09:22Nine men have served as Secretary General of this organisation in its 80 years of existence.
09:34Because, ladies and gentlemen, how can an organisation that claims to speak on behalf of the whole of humanity never
09:45have had a woman leading the organisations?
09:48How can we represent all of the continents if for three decades we haven't let the third most populated continent
09:57have this role?
09:59The United Nations came to being with the promise that all human beings had their place in this house.
10:05Therefore, the time has come to fulfil the outstanding half.
10:10The time has come for a woman from Latin America to become United Nations Secretary General.
10:17This is an historic debt that we must settle.
10:21And today, more than ever, when feminism is being attacked, when thousands of women are falling victim to machism, violence
10:29and xenophobia, we must reaffirm this commitment.
10:33And I want it to be very clear.
10:35I'm not saying this because I think that women have anything to prove.
10:39I'm saying it because it is the world that needs to show itself that on the road to equality, there's
10:46no going back.
10:48In my country, ladies and gentlemen, in Spain, it was women who were the first to show us that security
10:56could not be achieved through force, but through social progress.
11:02It was brave women like Clara Campo Amor, the first to defend in Parliament the rejection of war as a
11:08way of interacting with the world and opting instead for empathy and peace.
11:13That should always be what we do.
11:16If only more of the leaders that came up to this rostrum this week had even half the courage and
11:24lucidity of Clara Campo Amor.
11:26Feminism, ladies and gentlemen, is one of the main forces of transformation and progress that the world has experienced in
11:34the last century.
11:35And it's time for this force to guide this institution in much more of a clear and robust way.
11:43And it's for these reasons, ladies and gentlemen, that I believe.
11:53I believe that in order to get off on the right foot footing in this new decisive step forward for
12:00the United Nations, the UN needs a female Latin American secretary general.
12:05And I believe, what's more, that in order for her not to be alone, she will also need the support
12:12of brave governments who are prepared to do things right, however high the price to pay may be.
12:17This, ladies and gentlemen, is the option and the way forward that Spain has chosen.
12:24Over the last eight years, my country has opposed all wars of aggression wherever they have started, whether it's in
12:31Ukraine, in Lebanon or in Iran.
12:33We have refused to increase our military spending to five percent of GDP, and we've done everything possible to avoid
12:42aggressions that run counter to the UN charter,
12:45placing sanctions on the Russian aggressors, imposing an arms embargo on the Netanyahu government in Israel and prohibiting the use
12:54of our territory to deploy an aggression that was against international law
12:58and unequivocally condemning the genocide that Netanyahu is still perpetrating in Gaza.
13:05We have also mobilized resources to do more.
13:08And in the face of the chainsaws that have cut close to a third of world development aid in just
13:18two years,
13:18Spain has doubled its investment in cooperation and has increased its contribution to the multilateral system by 60 percent.
13:25And we've done this always holding true to our principles, not even in the most difficult times like the times
13:32being experienced by the Spanish city of Ceuta,
13:34where inequality, desperation and disinformation has fed one of the most significant to regular migration crisis in recent years.
13:45I know that in times like this, the temptation is to take shortcuts, to give in to fear, to turn
13:51migrants into the enemy and to break the law.
13:53However, my country, Spain, will not do this.
13:56And a Spanish city like Ceuta won't do it either because their citizens are showing that we can tackle a
14:03crisis without compromising on decency,
14:07upholding the law and respecting human rights.
14:10And we'll come out of this stronger precisely for this reason, because Spain does not choose the easy route.
14:16We always choose the fairest route.
14:18And I also want to recognise that the world knows this.
14:22At the end of the day, the reactionary forces that want to destroy this multilateral order won't stop attacking us
14:30for it.
14:30They want us to be intimidated.
14:32They want us to give up.
14:33They want us to end up believing that the SDGs are a lost cause, that defending the common good is
14:39naive,
14:40that cooperating is an act of weakness.
14:43Well, I'm here and I've come up to this rostrum to tell you loud and clear that they are wrong
14:49and that we will not keep quiet.
14:51The Spanish people are not going back.
14:53We will not stop believing that humanity can continue to progress and that working together, we can build a better
15:00world.
15:00And we're not going to do this because we believe that delivering for our children,
15:08because we know that in a few years, future generations will look back.
15:13They will study this decisive decade and they will ask us what role each and every one of us played.
15:19They will ask us what did we do when some countries started to break the rules and others decided to
15:27look the other way.
15:27They will ask us what we did when defending what we believed in started to cost us dearly.
15:34And when this happens, we want to be able to tell them that we did not give up the fight,
15:39not us.
15:41We want to be able to tell them that we gave everything to leave them a more peaceful, more sustainable
15:48and, of course, a fairer world.
15:50That's what we want to be able to tell them.
15:52And this is the commitment that I want to make here at this rostrum, not in my own name, of
15:58course,
15:58but rather on behalf of the country that I represent, Spain.
16:02Thank you very much.