“To my knowledge, yes, because Minister Albarez told me so”, “because a decree approved yesterday by the Slovenian government will be submitted to Parliament for approval in the same way,” he declared in this interview granted on Thursday evening and posted online on Friday. “So there will be three European countries”, namely Spain, Ireland and Slovenia “and after that”, continued the former Spanish foreign minister, recalling that Belgium had also announced its desire to recognize a Palestinian state. .

“This is clearly a symbolic act,” he insisted. “Beyond a state, we recognize the will of this state,” he added. When asked by reporters about these statements by Josep Borrell during his visit to Washington, Jose Manuel Alvarez did not confirm the May 21 date.

Convincing EU countries

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who has been the most critical voice in the European Union over Israel's military action in Gaza in retaliation for the unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7, announced his desire to recognize a Palestinian state from the fall.

At the end of March, as part of a European summit in Brussels, Sanchez published a joint declaration with his Irish, Maltese and Slovenian counterparts in which they all said they were “ready to recognize Palestine”. He recently expressed his desire to do so by the end of June and has since tried to rally as many people as possible to the approach, according to Spanish media who accompanied him on a visit to the Middle East.