Pedro Sanchez has once again refused to increase defence spending to 5% of GDP, stating before Parliament that Spain can meet its NATO commitments on 2.1%.
Addressing MPs following the summit in The Hague, Sanchez said the figure had been calculated by Spain’s own armed forces and included infrastructure and equipment development.
‘Spain does not need to spend 5% of its budget in relation to GDP on defence to meet NATO’s capability targets,’ he said.
He added that while NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte may consider 2.1% insufficient, ‘he lacks the data, the authority and the mandate to make such calculations on behalf of Spain or any other ally.’
Opposition leader Alberto Nuñez Feijoo, from the conservative Partido Popular (PP), accused Sanchez of damaging Spain’s credibility abroad.
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He claimed Sanchez was simply trying to shift attention away from recent corruption scandals engulfing the PSOE, describing the debate over defence spending as a distraction from the ‘crisis that is suffocating his government’.
Sanchez’s more left-leaning allies, such as Podemos, called for Spain’s withdrawal from NATO altogether, accusing the alliance off putting the country in danger.
Sumar, meanwhile, said the 5% demand made by Donald Trump was tantamount to ‘blackmail’ and should be resisted.
Sanchez also used his speech to attack Israel over its actions in Gaza, accusing it of breaching Article 2 of its EU association agreement on human rights compliance.
‘For that reason, I called on the European Commission to suspend the agreement immediately,’ he told MPs.
He added: ‘No state that tramples on Europe’s founding principles can be a partner. The same conduct we condemn in Putin’s war on Ukraine must not be tolerated from Netanyahu in Palestine.’
Sanchez warned that inaction in the face of Israel’s assault would make Europe ‘complicit in the gravest genocide of the 21st century.’
He said that what Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is doing in Gaza and also in the West Bank is an ‘outrage’ that will be remembered in history books ‘as one of the darkest episodes of the 21st century.’
Taking aim at Feijoo, Sanchez asked where he would find the ‘€350 billion needed to reach 5% of defence spending by 2035.’
‘Would you raise taxes on workers, or slash pensions?’ he asked.
He also accused Feijoo of ‘turning a blind eye’ to the war in Gaza, noting that the PP had abstained from votes calling for an end to the Israeli invasion.
Read more Spain news at the Spanish Eye.
