The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, will support the proposal of his Brazilian G-20 counterpart, Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silvaso that the the world’s great fortunes pay more taxes. Spain will be one of the countries that will join the proposal of the President of Brazil according to which he intends that people with a very high net worth contribute a “fair” part of their taxes and thus try to create a universal tax on the income of these people, who seek to introduce them into the declaration that will be ratified at the G20 Summit which will take place Monday and Tuesday in Rio de Janeiro.
The initial proposal from the Brazilian government is based on several studies carried out by the French economist Gabriel Zucmanwhich argues that if all the world’s billionaires paid a 2% tax on their wealth, between 200,000 and 250,000 million dollars could be raised. But Moncloa sources assure that the proposal which aims to be approved by the 20 leaders of the largest economies in the world does not reach this level and is not so specific because, among other things, negotiations have started and it is based on a vague idea that garners the greatest possible support from the rest of the leaders.
The same sources indicated that it is difficult for this agreement to achieve unanimous support and they gave the example of Argentina under the presidency of Javier Mileiwho rejects this type of measures in his current policy, compared to previous leaders like Mauricio Macri or Alberto Fernández.
Likewise, they criticized his opposition on other issues such as gender equality, climate change or the UN Sustainable Development Goals. That is, at this stage it is unclear what impact this tax measure will be reflected in the declaration, if Brazil manages to muster sufficient support. At the moment, Spain already has it.
Sources from Moncloa are in favor of the measure and assure that the Executive is already defending political and economic lines that go in this direction. It should be remembered that Sánchez had already defended, a month ago, during the UN “Future Summit”, the application of a global tax on large fortunes as well as “fairer taxation”. .
Bilateral meetings
Sánchez goes to the top accompanied by his wife, Begoña Gómezand the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the European Union and Cooperation, Jose Manuel Albares. Executive sources report that the Chief Executive will hold various bilateral meetings with other leaders already organized with the Prime Ministers of Vietnam, Pham Minh Chinh; from Canada, Justin Trudeau; and Australia, Anthony Albanese, and with the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, pending others being closed, as indicated.
Sanchezwith the rest of the leaders, will participate in two of the three sessions in which the Brazilian presidency in charge shared this nomination. The President of the Government will participate in the event dedicated to social inclusion and the fight against hunger and poverty and will also address the reform of global governance institutions.
The first of these is linked to one of the initiatives that should be launched during the summit, the alliance which aims to fight against hunger and poverty and which will be configured as a space for the exchange of ideas, good practices and measures with financial contributions that will need to be detailed to finance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as part of the defense of the 2030 Agenda.
Sánchez, according to government sources, will fully support this initiative, guaranteeing Spain’s full commitment and will make certain contributions in this regard, although he will not offer details pending the intervention of the head of executive.
Conference in Seville
Another point that La Moncloa highlights is that Sánchez will bring a message to this event about the importance of United Nations International Conference for development financing will take place in Seville next year. This is the fourth conference organized by the United Nations and Seville will be the venue chosen for its celebration.
The appointment will be June 30 to July 3, 2025 and the Executive considers this a key step to promote reform of the international financial architecture and financing needs to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. The Head of the The executive will highlight in Brazil the importance of this meeting in front of the rest of the G20 leaders, in which all will participate except Russian President Vladimir Putin.
