In the stands, Pedro Sánchez looked like a rare review. In the middle of speeches, the Spanish president cried out against “nuclear rearmament” and said that what is really needed is “moral rearmament” to stop this crazy military competition. He even cited Ronald Reagan and Robert Kennedy to demonstrate that many years ago it was understood where this drift leads: to the end of humanity. Sánchez also said it in Munich, the epicenter of that arms race, where all the intelligence and
Listening to other leaders, who mostly advocated even greater rearmament and coverage, it might seem that Sánchez is going in the opposite direction. But he and his Government believe that it is the other way around: they maintain that they are going ahead, to warn that the world is crashing down this path. And they trust that things will gradually turn towards their position.
In any case, whether or not he goes against the mainstream in Europe and the world, Sánchez is convinced that he is managing to represent an alternative world to that of Donald Trump much better than other leaders, and with this he believes that he is putting behind millions of people around the world, not only progressives, who defend another way of solving problems.
It’s not just a perception. In Munich, and one of the main opponents of Trump in the United States. The Democratic leader, who governs a State with almost 40 million inhabitants – it would be the fifth most populated country in the EU – expressed his enthusiasm for his profile as a progressive president, one of the few in the world, and told him that his wife was the one who most insisted that he meet him for his bravery in the Sánchez also thanked the Californian for his role and gave Newson a copy of Don Quixote as a fighter against the giant Trump and his allies from the big Californian technology companies.
The Spanish president is increasingly looking for that profile of a counter-current leader, an alternative to Trump. He believes that at some point, when things turn around, this position will have great value. The Spanish Government is confident that a bad result for the US president could change many things not only in that decisive country, but in all world politics, including Spanish politics. It is the hope that an Executive clings to that suffers every time the polls are opened, as has just happened in Extremadura and Aragón, and sees how the global right-wing wave also reaches Spain and prepares to reach La Moncloa in 2027.
Sánchez believes that this international role of his as a great reference for progressivism, which has more echo outside Spain than inside, can serve, when the time comes, to mobilize the Spanish left, increasingly discouraged and reluctant to vote. For this reason, and because he believes it is the right thing to do, he is absolutely determined to deepen it even at the risk of remaining in the minority in Europe and in some international forums. And even generating some tensions with other partners, much more armed.
The Spaniard has chosen a risky path, with costs – confrontation with the United States or Israel does not come for free in a Western and especially military world where both are key – but even some moderate conservatives scared by an arms drift that was unthinkable just five years ago. Time will tell what effects this bet has not only on Spain’s role in the world, but also on the results of the elections. What seems clear is that the bet is final. With it the political battle and the elections will be won or lost, but it will not change.
