The Diplomat
Defense Minister Margarita Robles announced yesterday before her NATO colleagues the “will of the Spanish government” to increase the defense budget “up to 2%”. Meanwhile, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, once again defended this increase for “security and solidarity” with the EU and Unidas Podemos and the rest of the left-wing parliamentary formations sent a joint letter to the head of the Executive in which they ask for more investment in health and less in defense.
“We have stated the Spanish government’s willingness to gradually increase our budget until it reaches 2%,” declared Robles at the end of the meeting of NATO defense ministers, held at the headquarters of the Atlantic Alliance in Brussels. According to the minister, who did not specify the deadlines set by the government to achieve these objectives, all NATO member states have agreed on the need to increase investment in defense in the face of the new security reality generated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “We have to prepare for a long war, but everything is absolutely unpredictable,” he added.
Pedro Sánchez’s government partners and the majority of his parliamentary supporters made clear this past Monday their rejection of the Chief Executive’s claim to increase defense spending to 2% of GDP. In this regard, the President of the Government insisted yesterday during the joint press conference with the Prime Minister of Croatia, Andrej Plenkovic, at the Moncloa Palace that Spain must increase its investment in defense because “we have to be jointly responsible for security and also in solidarity”. “If there are other countries that are decidedly increasing the defense budget to improve the security of the EU as a whole, Spain has to be there too,” he added. “Strengthening our security is something that concerns all the member states,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Social Rights and leader of Podemos, Ione Belarra, insisted yesterday, during a press conference, on her rejection of the increase in military spending because “Spain needs more minimum vital income, more aid to pay the electricity bill, more teachers and not more tanks”. Likewise, Unidas Podemos, ERC, Bildu, Más País, Compromís, Teruel Existe and BNG sent yesterday a letter to Pedro Sánchez in which the signatory formations warn that, “while some advocate to increase the budget in armament, we believe it is necessary to increase the budget in primary care”.
On the other hand, NATO defense ministers meeting yesterday in Brussels instructed the Alliance’s military commanders to draw up plans for the long-term reinforcement of the eastern flank in the face of the threat posed by Russia. “My ambition is that when they meet in Madrid there will be decisions on this substantial increase, which will depend on the information they receive from the commanders,” said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, referring to the next NATO summit, to be held next June in the Spanish capital.
