The Spanish MEP Hermann Tertsch (VOX, Patriots for Europe group) published a video from Brussels in which he described it as "unusual" that 27 European democracies finance the Cuban dictatorship and demanded the immediate termination of the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement (PDCA) between the European Union and Cuba.
The video was recorded after a small group of pro-regime activists gathered under the slogan "Europe Wake Up / Let Cuba Breathe," called by the Cuban Embassy in Belgium along with leftist organizations such as the PVDA/PTB party, Cubanismo.be, and the FGTB trade union.
Tertsch mocked the low attendance at the event, labeling the protesters as "a handful of people" and attributing the low turnout to the absence of Spanish socialists from the PSOE. "As soon as the PSOE members are focused on something else, the defenders of the communist dictatorship are just four characters and a drum," the MEP wrote on X last Tuesday.
"It is outrageous that 27 democracies are financing the dictatorship in the Caribbean. The dictatorship is finished and will fall soon, but we must first put an end to that European agreement and the payments," Tertsch stated in the video.
The immediate context of his statements is the scheduled vote this Thursday in the Plenary session in Strasbourg on a resolution regarding the situation in Cuba, primarily driven by the group Patriots for Europe, which calls for the suspension of the ADPC, the cessation of European subsidies to the regime, and the release of Cuban political prisoners.
Tertsch formally announced in May that Patriots for Europe would present this resolution, stating that Europe cannot be "the last support that this tyranny, which has been torturing the Cuban people for 67 years, has left."
Parliamentary pressure has growing support. In January 2026, the European Parliament approved an amendment with 331 votes in favor, 241 against, and 63 abstentions to review and suspend privileged cooperation with Cuba, citing the presence of Cuban fighters in Ukraine and the use of European funds in repressive structures.
The High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs, Kaja Kallas, confirmed in May that the ADPC was under review, acknowledging that the agreement "has not yielded the expected results" after nearly a decade in effect.
The Cuban opposition leader José Daniel Ferrer, exiled from Cuba in October 2025, appeared on May 5 before the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee and described the EU-Cuba agreement as "an aspirin for a terrible cancer," warning that Cuba is experiencing "the worst crisis of its modern history."
Last Saturday, Tertsch also mocked the suspension of Visa and Mastercard in Cuba, stating: "The tourism of the progressive elite, of Spanish socialists and unionists, is over."
The ADPC, signed in December 2016 and provisionally in effect since November 2017, includes a human rights clause that allows for its suspension in the event of serious violations, a clause whose activation has been demanded for months by critical sectors of the regime within the European Parliament.
The vote this Thursday in Strasbourg comes at a time of intense international pressure on Havana: The United States directly sanctioned Díaz-Canel for the first time on June 4, tourism in Cuba plummeted by 55.8% in the first four months of 2026, and blackouts reach up to 20 hours in some areas of the island.
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