It had been a long time since Donald Trump had forgotten about Spain. This Thursday he did it… and at what moment. The president of the United States has suggested that NATO should “expel” Spain from among its members refuse to increase defense spending in . A threat that the Government takes with “the maximum tranquility“, boasting that Spain is a full member of NATO” that complies “as much as the US.”
He rejection of Pedro Sánchez to reach the 5% of GDP in Defense in the coming years—despite having signed the group declaration that includes it—at this June summit in The Hague, tension with the United States increased. In the same meeting, the percentage that did not want to pay in Defense, through some tariffs impossible to applysince they would have to be established for the entire European Union.
“I requested that they pay 5%, not 2%, and the majority thought it was not going to happen, and it was approved practically unanimously. We had a lagging country: Spain. (…) Frankly, maybe they should be expelled from NATO“, he declared in a press conference with the Finnish leader—recent partner of the Atlantic alliance—Alexander Stubb, from the White House.
For Trump,”Spain has no excuse” for “not doing it”in reference to the dedication of 5% of the GDP in military and related matters, something that for Sánchez is “incompatible” with the maintenance of the Welfare State. Thus, the socialist leader has been insisting since before the NATO summit on stay at 2.1% who claims to have agreed with Mark Rutte.
Not in vain, countries that have faced this increasing expense such as France or Germany they have already called future cuts in social items to be able to attend to the Defense item without triggering internal debts.
In a first immediate reaction, the Spanish Government has expressed its “maximum tranquility“, claiming that “Spain is a full member and committed to NATO”.
“Y meets with your capacity objectives as much as the United States“, as government sources have acknowledged to Europa Press.
