{"id":503281,"date":"2025-10-16T04:50:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T04:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/503281\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T04:50:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T04:50:15","slug":"how-spains-sanchez-became-natos-flakiest-friend-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/503281\/","title":{"rendered":"How Spain\u2019s S\u00e1nchez became NATO\u2019s flakiest friend\u00a0 \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cTrade falls under the exclusive competence of the European Commission acting on behalf of all EU member states,\u201d said Commission spokesperson Olof Gill. \u201cWe will respond appropriately, as we always do, to any measures taken against one or more of our member states, and I also remind you that we now have an EU-U.S. trade deal in place. This is a platform for addressing any further trade or trade related questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not worried<\/p>\n

At home, however, S\u00e1nchez may not be too worried. The ongoing tussle with Trump may make relations between Madrid and Washington awkward, but the tensions are a net positive for the prime minister domestically.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to the latest surveys, S\u00e1nchez is an unpopular figure whom 67 percent<\/a> of the population consider \u201cuntrustworthy.\u201d But polls show a majority of Spaniards<\/a> back him when it comes to his refusal to dramatically ramp up Spain\u2019s military spending.<\/p>\n

\"\"NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte tried to downplay the spat at a meeting of the alliance\u2019s defense ministers in Brussels on Wednesday. | Aydemir\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

Pablo Sim\u00f3n, a political scientist at Madrid\u2019s Carlos III University, said Spain has traditionally been reluctant to get excessively involved in international security policy and remained neutral in global conflicts. The country\u2019s decision to join NATO in 1982 was extremely controversial, and millions participated in protests against the Spanish government when it endorsed the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cS\u00e1nchez\u2019s position is popular because it reflects [the] prudent approach [of Spaniards] to the defense issue, and Donald Trump is an unpopular figure in Spain,\u201d Sim\u00f3n said. \u201cFrom a strictly domestic political perspective, as long as Spaniards feel that they are meeting their obligations as a country, it\u2019s a winning strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even if S\u00e1nchez wanted to bow to Trump\u2019s demands, he lacks the political support to commit the country to a significant increase in its defense spending, according to Sim\u00f3n.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cTrade falls under the exclusive competence of the European Commission acting on behalf of all EU member states,\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[2000,299,2816,2821,104,335],"class_list":{"0":"post-503281","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-european-politics","11":"tag-nato","12":"tag-spain","13":"tag-war-in-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115382047491803147","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}