Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has called for an overhaul of the United Nations Security Council to guarantee equitable representation across all regions and to abolish the permanent veto power wielded by its five permanent members.
Addressing the UN General Assembly in New York, Sanchez insisted that the international governing architecture must adapt to reflect current realities: "We need to reform the Security Council so that all of the regions in the world have fair representation, and so that we can do away with the right of veto of the permanent members."
Sanchez argued that under the principles of the UN Charter, "no country should be a judge in its own case, no matter how powerful they are."
He cautioned that fundamental pillars — peace, sustainability, and equal opportunity —are facing systematic assaults from political actors seeking to drag the world back into a "dark past."
Assault on multilateralism
Highlighting Spain's foreign policy actions, Sanchez cited sanctions against Russia and Madrid's arms embargo on the Israeli government, reaffirming an "unequivocal" condemnation of the "genocide that Netanyahu is still perpetrating in Gaza."
Sanchez denounced what he characterised as a "planned and coordinated demolition attempt" directed at weakening multilateral institutions: "They start by questioning the rules, then they break them, knowing well that nobody will dare to hold them accountable. They cut their contributions to multilateral bodies like this one. They obstruct these organisations' ability to act, so then write them off as useless entities that we can do without."
Despite these challenges, he urged member states to rebuild trust in the UN.
Turning to succession, Sanchez insisted the next secretary-general should be a Latin American woman — noting that all nine postholders to date have been men — describing it as a "historic debt that we must settle."
Addressing migration in the North African enclave of Ceuta, where roughly 72,000 people crossed irregularly in late July, Sanchez pledged Spain will respect human rights rather than "turn migrants into the enemy."
