Polanski and Sanchez break with European mainstream to embrace Barghouti’s cause

Just as Green Party leader Zack Polanski has made calls to release Marwan Barghouti, so too in Spain, prime minister Pedro Sanchez attended Barcelona’s Primavera Sound festival. There, Barghouti’s son, Arab Barghouti, addressed 75,000 people before meeting the Spanish premier.

Arab Barghouthi, son of Palestinian prisoner Marwan Barghouti, met with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez after addressing 75,000 people at Primavera Sound. pic.twitter.com/RMMyKyzGm3

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) June 8, 2026

Sanchez even shared a video of Barghouti’s son’s speech on Instagram and thanked him for raising his voice.

Polanski and Sanchez’s positioning of Marwan Barghouthi as a political prisoner rather than Israel’s framing of him as a terrorist borrows directly from the playbook that once freed Nelson Mandela.

Barghouti has been called “Palestine’s Mandela” – a statue of him briefly stood near the UK Parliament last week before police intercepted it.

Like Mandela, Barghouti has spent decades in prison. And like Mandela, his supporters believe he will one day be recognised as a global symbol of freedom and justice.

Barghouti must be freed

A POLITICO profile published the same week praised the Spanish PM as a “rockstar” and the “unlikely face of Europe’s opposition” to Trump.

When the U.S. and Israel began their attack on Iran in late February, Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez stood out as the sole EU leader to openly condemn the military operation.

Within months, he went from an outlier in Europe to the bloc’s moral leader.

🔗 https://t.co/VLTgSu4Whv pic.twitter.com/s4N6wcvf0c

— POLITICOEurope (@POLITICOEurope) June 8, 2026

POLITICO traces Sanchez’s domestic popularity to his defiance of US foreign policy priorities.

Spaniards backed him when he refused Trump’s demands to hike NATO spending. But it was his condemnation of the war on Iran that resonated with Spanish voters, among the most opposed to the attack anywhere in Europe.

The news outlet praised Sanchez as an exception to other European leaders who have not stood up to the Americans:

Overall, Europe’s leaders have been reluctant to clash with Trump. The U.S. is one of the EU’s largest trading partners, and maintaining stable ties is considered essential for countries like Germany. Additionally, despite Trump’s efforts to undermine NATO, European defense continues to not only be U.S.-led, but U.S.-centered.

But Sánchez is an exception to that status quo.

Zionist backlash

Like Barghouti’s, though obviously not to anywhere near the same degree, Polanski and Sanchez have paid the price of standing up to the Anglo-American-Zionist ruling elite.

For Polanski, the cost is a relentless media war. The Telegraph has joined other right-wing rags in publishing antisemitic Polanski caricatures. The Telegraph has also implied that Polanski wants to create a “Jew register,” in response to the Green leader backing calls to hold potential war criminals to account.

The Daily Mail published anonymous claims from allegedly “disgusted” relatives, but Polanski revealed they’d all refused to talk.

For Sanchez, right-wing rags are too eager for his downfall. The Jerusalem Post calls Sanchez’s administration “the most antisemitic government in the West,” and digs into his wife’s corruption case. 

One particularly strange claim from the Jerusalem Post, attributed to Spanish businessman David Hatchwell, insists Spain is “led by a coalition financed by Iran” made up of “terrorists who have never answered for their crimes.” No evidence is provided.

Hatchwell smears Sanchez’s government as one that “hates Spain, hates Israel, and hates America.”

Polanski and Sánchez might not reflect mainstream elite politics – but they certainly reflect majority public opinion.

New polling from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign reveals just how out of touch the British establishment really is.

🚨BREAKING: New polling shows that Labour’s policy on Gaza is a significant factor in progressive voters ditching the party in huge numbers 🧵 pic.twitter.com/9ftj4Y1QWQ

— Palestine Solidarity Campaign (@PSCupdates) June 8, 2026

Polling showed that Labour’s policy on Gaza is a significant factor in progressive voters ditching the party in huge numbers, with 53% of those who switched to the Greens, Lib Dems, SNP, Plaid Cymru, or independents citing Gaza as a reason.

Polanski and Sanchez’s embrace of Barghouti’s cause probably resonates more with ordinary voters than any front-page smear in the Daily Mail or Jerusalem Post.

Featured image via Getty/Buda Mendes