It is a strange and bold statement to make considering Pablo Iglesias is one of the founding fathers of the far left party Podemos and is a key part of a left wing coalition government which would be expected to embrace the European Union and all it stands for, especially its cash which Spain is desperately going to need to cover the financial fall out from the coronavirus pandemic.
However, I have expressed my misgivings about how the EU has responded to the crisis in this column before and also highlighted the fact that the Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, has also taken the EU to task.
Now, his wing man told the Financial Times that the EU needs to step up and show solidarity to aid countries worst hit by the coronavirus or else the bloc may not survive the ongoing divide.
There’s no doubt that there is a big divide between European member states on how to come up with a joint plan to deal with the economic fallout from the virus outbreak - not helped by Germany’s recent squabbles with the ECB as well. But, having spoken at length to a Euro MP, Brussels has already put over 1.5 billion euros on the table to help the block’s economic and social recovery and further measures will be voted on this month.
And, the EU has agreed that mistakes have been made and that there are plenty of lessons to be learnt from this crisis. Bashing the EU is an easy option for covering up for faults made at home, but it could be a costly one.