The Diplomat
The sending of Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine by Spain has generated a new division within the coalition Government between those in favor of maintaining “unity” with the EU and NATO against Russia and the misgivings of Unidas Podemos against any decision that implies a “war escalation”.
“We, of course, will be with our partners in NATO and the EU, because unity is what gives strength to the response,” the Minister of the Presidency, Felix Bolaños, told reporters yesterday in the corridors of Congress, where yesterday he held a meeting with the spokeswoman of the Popular Parliamentary Group, Cuca Gamarra. This shipment, he said, is being prepared in “coordination” with the allied States and will not pass through the Lower House because Spain has already been sending military material to Ukraine for eleven months.
Bolaños did not want to specify either the number of tanks that will leave Spain or other details, such as the model or the training of the Ukrainian military in their handling. Previously, the holder of Presidency advanced, during the Europa Press Informative Breakfasts, that the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, will explain the operation “in detail”.
For her part, the secretary general of Podemos and Minister of Social Rights, Ione Belarra, yesterday criticized the sending of tanks, considering that it will only serve to increase the “escalation of war” and could have “an unpredictable and very dangerous response from Russia”. “Peace will be born by negotiating and de-escalating, and that is where we should find Spain,” she added.
Likewise, the spokesman of Unidas Podemos (minority partner in the coalition government) in Congress, Pablo Echenique, and the leader of IU (member of the same parliamentary group), Enrique Santiago, asked the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, to be the “brave voice of diplomacy in Europe” because the war is in a “catastrophic standoff with military escalation of unpredictable consequences and with the involvement of nuclear powers”.
For his part, the spokesman of ERC in Congress, Gabriel Rufian, has shown his rejection to the sending of war material to Ukraine and has warned, in an act of New Economy Forum, that any decision in this sense must be voted in the Lower House because it is “a transcendental decision” and because “it is the first of democracy”. Likewise, the spokeswoman of EH Bildu in the Congress, Mertxe Aizpurua, also expressed her opposition and declared yesterday that “the solution to the conflict and above all thinking about the welfare of the Ukrainian population goes through dialogue and using diplomatic channels”. In a very different sense, the spokesman of the PNV, Aitor Esteban, supported the sending of the battle tanks because the “commitment” of the EU with Ukraine cannot remain “half-hearted”.
The general coordinator of the PP, Elías Bendodo, showed his support to the sending of the battle tanks, but warned that his party wants to know the “small print” and the details about “what is going to be done, what is going to be proposed and if it is agreed with the rest of the countries”, because any decision of this type must have the coordination and the “unity of message” of the rest of the EU States. The day before, Cuca Gamarra affirmed in the Congress, during the appearance of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, that Ukraine “needs carts and not appeasement proposals”.
In this regard, Felix Bolaños yesterday showed his “respect” for the opinions of the rest of the parliamentary groups, but warned that the will of the Government is to work “in a univocal way” to “prevent Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and that it is a united response of all NATO allies and the EU”. “If Putin had not received such a forceful, such a unitary response from the European Union and NATO, would he have been satisfied with invading Ukraine alone?” he wondered. “Our freedom and security is also at stake in Ukraine,” he added.
