MADRID – Madrid is not bowing to pressure from US President Donald Trump to raise the Iberian country’s defence spending to 5% of GDP and plans to increase the national budget for military purposes to 1.32% of GDP this year, in line with the government’s initial defence roadmap.

Pedro Sánchez’s government aims to reach 2% of military spending by 2029 – more than doubling the €17.523 million Madrid invested in defence in 2024 – with the goal of reaching € 36.560 million in five years, El País reported.

The plan of the PSOE coalition government with the left-wing Sumar platform is to meet the initial commitment of Spain to NATO, increasing the country’s military spending to 2 percent of its national GDP.

However, although this was NATO’s initial goal, a few days ago the Alliance Secretary General Mark Rutte hinted that the bar should be raised in order to meet all of Europe’s security challenges.

The EU’s head of diplomacy, Kaja Kallas, said a couple of weeks ago that Trump “was right” to ask NATO allies to raise their military budgets.

At last week’s Munich Security Conference, it became clear that as the United States withdraws its support for NATO, the European Union will need to accelerate its efforts to become more independent in its defence pillar.

Meanwhile, the leader of the Spanish People’s Party (EPP), Alberto Núñez Feijóo, harshly attacked the government, claiming that Spain is not a serious partner of NATO or the European Union.

“Spain is not a reliable country for NATO nor for the European Union (EU)”, Núñez Feijóo told El Mundo in an interview, stressing that this causes “extreme weakness” in relations between Madrid and Washington.

“I would return to reliability, to annual budgets, to fulfilling international commitments, to having a respectful relationship with the US, knowing that the US is our partner. Between China, Russia and the US, I choose the US. Spain currently has no reliability in foreign and defence policy”, the leader of the main opposition party assured.

In relation to Madrid’s announced goal of reaching 2% of GDP in defence spending, the PP leader predicted that the government will not achieve it because “its partners are not going to accept it”.

Núñez Feijóo recalled that Sumar, and its former ally Podemos in Sánchez’s previous government, have always been very critical of any increase in the country’s military budget.

Both Sumar and Podemos were very critical to Sánchez for sending Spanish military equipment to Ukraine, especially Leopard tanks, as well as other ‘offensive’ war material.

Spain became NATO’s 16th member in 1982, following the signing of the Washington Treaty. Its membership, questioned at the time mainly by various political forces of the radical left, was ratified in a referendum in 1986.

(Fernando Heller | Euractiv.es)