The position of Spain has baffled many of NATO members after refusing to accept reaching 5% of GDP in military spending. It all started at the recent Hague Summit where the president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, confirmed that The Executive would not apply such a measure that was proposed from the White House of Donald Trump. “It is incompatible with our welfare state and our worldview,” said Sanchez before his European partners. However, Spain will reach 2.1% of GDP expenditure.
In that sense and to deepen the position and remoteness of Spain in the military section, Lithuania has resorted to Félix Arteaga, Spanish defense expert of the Royal Institute of ElCan and interviewee LRT.LT. Under his perspective, defense policy For Spain it has not been one of the priorities in national budgets due to isolation during World War II and the Cold War due to the dictatorial regime in which Spain was immersed. “When the transition to democracy began, all governments, not only socialist, but also conservative and liberals, tried to maintain the smallest defense budget,” he says.
Given this situation, Arteaga explains that due to the size of the country and the cultural rejection of military investment it is complicated that Spain can achieve investment in defense that other smaller nations can achieve. “Most countries such as Germany, Italy or Spain, which provide NATO a lot, They have more difficulty increasing their budgets“, he says.
With this, the defense expert not only explains the rejection of military spending from a historical or cultural prism, It also points to the delicate situation that the Government of Pedro Sánchez is going through. Immersed in alleged cases of corruption such as Santos Cerdán or José Luis Ábalos, the president of the Executive has been forced to gain political points clinging to social rejection of the increase in defense spending proposed from the United States, Donald Trump.
“He will not campaign for more military spending, because I think he is probably thinking about the next elections“, says Arteaga that, despite the nuance, recognizes that Spain is one of NATO’s indisputable muscles and that, despite its refusal to increase that military expense, it continues to contribute more than many countries of smaller size and budget.
