Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani wrote on X that he had asked EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas to put the adoption of sanctions on the agenda of the next meeting of the bloc’s foreign ministers. He accused Ben-Gvir of committing “unacceptable acts” and of subjecting the activists to “harassment and humiliation, in violation of the most basic human rights.”
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez — who had already banned Ben-Gvir from entering Spain last year — similarly announced that Madrid would “push Brussels” to extend the sanctions “on a European scale as a matter of urgency.”
In Poland, Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski asked that Ben-Gvir be banned from entering the country. Speaking to POLITICO, Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said the video “showed why it is important that we sanction these extremist ministers.”
Meanwhile, Germany’s Johann Wadephul condemned the footage on Wednesday as depicting “unspeakable behavior.” An EU diplomat told POLITICO Italy’s shift on the sanctions would increase pressure on Germany to similarly reconsider its position to punitive measures, given that it would remain the only major EU country opposing them.
At the same time that national capitals were calling for action against Ben-Gvir, in Strasbourg 29 MEPs on Thursday signed a letter calling for EU sanctions against the Israeli minister for flotilla detentions. The lawmakers accused the minister of “despicable behavior” and said the incident reflected “a systematic political project that has devastated the Gaza Strip” while transforming “absolute impunity into a system of governance.”
But major obstacles to taking punitive measures against the politician remain.