Pedro Sánchez arrives at the G20 summit in Brazil to defend a global tax on the super-rich

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, arrived this Monday in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) for the G20 summit, accompanied by his wife, Begoña Gómez, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares. Sánchez began his journey at this summit of the world’s 20 most industrialized countries with a pledge to support a global tax on the “super-rich” to fund initiatives that end global poverty and hunger . In fact, the big bet of this multilateral summit is to launch a Global Alliance against hunger and poverty, promoted by the President of Brazil, Luíz Inácio Lula da Silva, current president of the G20.

Nearly 40 countries have joined this Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty, which 30 organizations have also signed. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), approximately 733 million people worldwide are undernourished.

The Argentine President, Javier Milei, is the only member of the G20 club not to have joined this initiative against hunger and poverty.

This summit intends to be approached through three fundamental axes which aim, on the one hand, to achieve a agreement to end hunger. To do this, they want countries to sign an agreement to establish a global tax on billionaires. Spain will show its full commitment to this initiative, according to government sources.

The United States, through its Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, opposed the implementation of this proposal during the group’s previous meeting this summer. Yellen assured that she did not see “the need” to create this tax figure. He reiterated that they believe in a redistributive model, but that each country adapts it to its needs. “All countries must adopt measures to ensure that their tax systems are fair and progressive,” he said. Germany was also against this global tribute.

So, in previous meetings of the group, the billionaires tax did not go beyond a sort of “statement of intent” or “idea to work on in the future.”

On the other hand, within the framework of this summit, they wish to reform international organizations such as the UN, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank or the World Trade Organization.

The third axis will focus on the energy transition at a time when the Climate Summit (COP29) is also being held in the capital of Azerbaijan and from which a financing agreement for the least developed countries should emerge.

Lula da Silva was tasked with opening the G20 summit as host, emphasizing the need to fight world hunger and criticizing “millionaire investment in wars” to the detriment of issues that affect the most vulnerable people, such as hunger and climate change. .

“I see with sadness that the world is worse,” declared the Brazilian president. He criticized the fact that there were more open conflicts than during World War II and “the greatest number of forced displacements ever recorded.”

Concerning the eradication of hunger, Lula stressed that it is up to the major world economies to “put an end to this wound which shames humanity”, while the G20 represents 85% of the world’s GDP, he said. he recalled.

A summit marked by geopolitical tensions

This summit begins at a time of some global tensions. On the one hand, there is Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, whose end is far from being reached, and Israel’s war against Hamas. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights warned earlier this month that “unprecedented violations of international humanitarian law are being committed (in Gaza), raising fears of atrocity crimes.”

Sánchez spoke on his social media account

In this sense, Vladimir Putin, against whom there is an international arrest warrant for the war in Ukraine, will once again be conspicuously absent from this G20 summit. Moscow sent Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in his place.

But to this must be added the paradigm shift that will occur in the world after the re-election of Donald Trump as president of the United States, because it threatens to intensify the trade war with China and dismantle globalized world trade .

The President of the Spanish Executive underlined in his message that Spain’s position is to work with its counterparts in “the defense of international trade based on rules”, sending a kind of message for the future.

The presence of Begoña Gómez

The presence of Pedro Sánchez’s wife, Begoña Gómez, attracted media attention, since she was to testify this Monday before Judge Peinado as being under investigation for crimes related to the rental of computer software. the chair she co-directed at the Complutense University of Madrid. Gómez claimed that the invitation to the G20 prevented him from attending the meeting.

In this sense, the justification specifies that the G20 organization invites the companions of world leaders to also participate in the sessions that will take place this Monday and tomorrow, Tuesday November 19. Additionally, they are also invited to the reception hosted by the summit host. In this case, the President of Brazil, Lula da Silva and his wife, this Monday.

Throughout these two days, the President of the Spanish Government will have bilateral meetings with several world leaders, taking advantage of the event. According to the public agenda, he will meet bilaterally with the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, and is also expected to meet his counterparts from Australia and Vietnam, as well as the head of the International Monetary Fund, Bulgarian economist Kristalina Georgieva.

It remains to be seen what the content of the joint declaration, which must be made public this Tuesday after the last plenary meeting, will be. He will address issues that generate certain tensions between countries, such as the war in Ukraine or this tax on billionaires. It is also about financing to deal with the environmental crisis, an issue which is proving to generate a lot of friction, as was clearly seen during the COP29 which is being held these days in Azerbaijan.