Pedro Sánchez stresses Spain and Germany's shared commitment to democratic memory

Moncloa Palace, Madrid

Pool Moncloa / Borja Puig de la Bellacasa

Pedro Sánchez and Frank-Walter Steinmeier held a bilateral meeting in which they discussed issues such as economic cooperation between the two countries, including bilateral relations, energy interconnections, the defence industry, simplification and the climate agenda; extremism; democratic memory; the geopolitical situation and the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. Both stressed the excellent bilateral relations between Spain and Germany and agreed on the importance of further strengthening them.

The president of the Government of Spain has claimed that the alliance between the two countries is strategic, stressing that Germany is an essential economic partner for Spain, being its second largest customer, its main supplier and one of the main sources of foreign direct investment. Along these lines, he also underlined his commitment to continue exploring new opportunities for collaboration in strategic sectors and in the framework of European and multinational programmes, highlighting Spain's reliability as a strategic partner in the defence industry.

President Sánchez also pointed out that the increase in German defence production opens up new opportunities for leading Spanish companies, capable of contributing to strengthening the common industrial capacity. In this sense, both positively valued the holding of the 11th Spanish-German Forum focused on European competitiveness and economic resilience as a key tool to boost bilateral economic relations.

On the subject of democratic memory, the president of the Government of Spain thanked the president of Germany for his visit to Gernika, a gesture that he described as having enormous symbolic power to honour memory and reinforce shared democratic values. In this regard, Pedro Sánchez acknowledged Germany's commitment to the culture of memory and stressed that Spain is also strengthening it, especially on the 50th anniversary of the death of the dictator Francisco Franco, as a shared European effort. With regard to extremism, another of the issues discussed, both shared their concern about the rise of extremism in Europe and stressed the importance of democratic forces acting in unity and with constructive solutions to protect European values.

Non official translation