The allies have finally had the pleasure of getting to know Pedro Sánchez Pérez Castejón, the new world leader of anti-Trumpism. A man capable of signing one thing, saying another, and ending up doing a third… Always, of course, what he believes suits him best. And all of this, according to him, without lying. They’re just “changes of opinion.”
So, before arriving at the Hague summit, Sánchez boasted of having obtained a letter from the NATO Secretary General which, in Sánchez’s opinion, would exempt Spain from increasing its defense spending to 5% of GDP by 2025. Mark Rutte never accepted that interpretation and always maintained that what his letter offered was flexibility to reach that level of spending (it was understood that this would be after Sánchez was no longer in La Moncloa).
Sánchez argues that it makes no sense to talk about GDP percentages and that if one talks about committed capabilities, Spain can acquire them by dedicating only 2.1% of GDP to military spending. The figure of 2.1%, according to him, was provided by the Spanish armed forces through the Ministry of Defense. In other words, a figure provided by his minister, Margarita Robles.
The Belgian Prime Minister ironized about the matter: “If Spain is capable of doing with 2.1% of GDP what the rest of us have to do by investing 5%, then they are a genius.” The Italian Prime Minister, laughing, joined in on this Iberian “exception”: “Italy signed the same as Spain. Or Spain signed the same as Italy. In reality, we all signed the same thing.”
The declaration signed by all NATO leaders, including Sánchez, consists of five points, and in one of them, the states commit to “annually investing 5% of GDP in basic defense needs, as well as in defense and security-related expenses, by 2035, to ensure our individual and collective obligations.” Additionally, NATO leaders confirmed a review of spending plans in 2029, “in light of the strategic environment and updated capability targets.”
But minutes after signing the text, Sánchez insisted that Spain will not go beyond 2.1% (at least while he is president, it is understood). And this blatant contradiction has infuriated Donald Trump: “Spain is terrible. They want to stay at 2% (…) We are negotiating a trade deal with Spain and I am going to make them pay double,” he declared.
The allies do not quite understand that they are facing an imaginative leader who – for example – when, after two years without presenting budgets, he is read the article of the Constitution (“the Government is responsible for preparing the General State Budgets” which must be presented to Congress “at least three months before the expiration of those of the previous year”… He points out, without batting an eyelid, that this is “interpretable.”
