“The global battle against the extreme right,” as El Confidencial calls it, is unfolding in Barcelona. On April 17 and 18, the capital of Catalonia is hosting a summit called “Global Progressive Mobilization,” bringing together figures from the international social democracy to show that this movement “is not dead and buried by the shareholder wave” sweeping the planet, as explained by the conservative media outlet in Madrid.
The summit aims to address a wide range of topics, “from defending democracy and a world order based on norms to regulating new technological powers, social cohesion, equality, and environmental protection,” according to the left-leaning newspaper El País. Prominent political leaders including the president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, and the president of the European Council, António Costa, as well as party leaders and civil society figures, are expected to attend.
Remobilizing “the progressive family”
According to La Vanguardia, a centrist Barcelona journalist, the goal is to reflect on “a broad front capable of acting as a counterbalance to President Donald Trump’s strategy and the rise of the extreme right.”
El País notes that “the progressive family has experienced a period of great political difficulties in recent years, marked, among other things, by the loss of support among the working classes in the most prosperous democracies of the northern hemisphere – who have turned to populist national discourse in the face of economic, social, or identity issues – and the working classes of Latin American democracies.”
La Vanguardia adds that, unlike social democrats, the extreme right has demonstrated in the past its “efficiency” in gathering its main figures, as seen in Madrid in 2024 when launching the campaign for the European elections.
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