The Party of the European Left congratulates all forces fighting against the applications of sanctions to Portugal and Spain, which obtained this week the cancelation of the budget fines by the European Commission.

According to Catarina Martins, coordinator of the Left Bloc, ¨Portugal does not win by playing by the rules, Portugal wins by fighting for the dignity of those who live in Portugal and not give in to pressure”. For Pedro Filipe Soares, Left Bloc’s Chief Whip, “this decision is a defeat to all those in Portugal and in Europe who did everything within their power for the application of sanctions to the country”.

From Izquierda Unida (IU), Carlos Sanchez Mato, stated that IU rejects the “triumphalism” of the Spanish government of Mariano Rajoy, after this decision by the European Commission, and warns that the priority of the Spanish Popular Party is to cut back and turn its back to the real problems of the Spanish people at the expense of mortgaging the future state budgets”.

The Party of the European Left encourages all forces to keep fighting against the suspension of structural funds, still to be decided by the European institutions, next September.  These sanctions, which have been a constant threat to these two southern countries, concern the budgetary executions from 2013 to 2015, where in Portugal, the situation is even more flagrant, as the country was under troika strict supervision in those years so the EU is kind of sanctioning its own execution.