Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez hits back at U.S. President Donald Trump's criticisms of Madrid's refusal to let U.S. planes use its bases to attack Iran, saying 'no to war.'BORJA PUIG DE LA BELLACASA/AFP/Getty Images
When Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez released his political memoir in 2019, he called it Resistance Manual and wrote about how he grew stronger in the face of adversity.
The book has become prophetic, as Mr. Sánchez emerges as U.S. President Donald Trump’s most vociferous critic in Europe and seeks to capitalize politically on that role at home.
Mr. Sánchez, 54, has been alone among European Union leaders in opposing the U.S.-Israel air strikes on Iran and has refused to permit Washington to launch attacks from military bases in Spain. While he has agreed to join Italy, Britain, France and other countries in sending warships to Cyprus, he has insisted that the naval support is only for defensive purposes.
European leaders vary in support of U.S.-Israel military strikes on Iran
Mr. Trump is deeply unpopular in Spain, so bashing the U.S. President is a handy way for the Prime Minister to deflect attention from a host of political headaches. His minority government has been unable to pass a budget and has been mired in a series of scandals that have involved allegations against his wife and brother. His Socialist party has also been hammered in local elections and has seen its popularity shrink nationally.
“He needs something to escape from the difficulties right now at the national level,” said Paco Camas, the head of public opinion in Spain for polling firm Ipsos. Opposing Mr. Trump is a shrewd way for Mr. Sánchez to go after his opponents on the right, especially the populist Vox party, which has been more supportive of Mr. Trump. “If they are criticizing Sánchez, they are at the same time saying that they are aligned with Trump’s interests over Spain’s,” Mr. Camas said.
When Mr. Trump lashed out this week and threatened to cut U.S. trade with Spain, Mr. Sánchez doubled down on his criticism. “We are not going to be accomplices to something that is bad for the world, simply because of fear of reprisals from some,” he said in a televised address.
Trump says U.S. will cut off all trade with Spain
This isn’t the first time the Spanish leader has tangled with the U.S. President.
At last June’s NATO summit in The Hague, he riled up Mr. Trump by refusing to commit to spending 5 per cent of Spain’s gross domestic product on defence. He told the gathering that target was “incompatible” with Spain’s worldview, adding that his government would stick with its 2.1-per-cent target.
In January, he criticized the U.S. military’s capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, calling it “a violation of international law” that promoted the “law of the jungle,” and has mocked Mr. Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants.
“Some leaders have chosen to hunt them down and deport them through operations that are both unlawful and cruel,” he wrote in an opinion piece in The New York Times last month. “My government has chosen a different way: a fast and simple path to regularize their immigration status.”
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Wednesday doubled down on his opposition to the attack on Iran by the U.S. and Israel, warning that the conflict risked playing 'Russian roulette' with the lives of millions. Sanchez was responding after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to cut trade with Madrid over its position on the conflict.
Reuters
Some analysts have speculated that Mr. Sánchez might use his anti-Trump rhetoric to call a snap election, a year earlier than required. He has even adopted the slogan “No to war,” which Spanish protesters used in 2003 to voice their opposition to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
“Probably he prefers to stay until next year, but it’s true that we need to wait and see,” said Pablo Simon, a political scientist at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. “We never know with Sánchez if he’s very committed with his values or he’s playing a kind of cynical card here to gain political leverage.”
Mr. Sánchez, who has been in power since 2018, is certainly used to taking political risks. He called an early election in 2023 when polls and pundits predicted a sweeping victory for the main opposition People’s Party. He framed the campaign as a choice between continuity or the mayhem of the far right. The tactic worked, and the Socialists won just enough seats to form a minority government.
He is also in a better position economically to take on Mr. Trump than other EU leaders.
Spain is far less reliant on the U.S. for trade. The U.S. is Spain’s sixth-biggest market for goods, and total trade between the countries represents just 4.4 per cent of Spain’s GDP. That’s less than half the value of U.S. trade across the euro zone, the 21 EU member states that use the currency.
There are still economic risks. While Mr. Trump can’t single out Spain for retaliation because the country’s trade arrangements are negotiated by the EU, he could find other ways to impede Spanish companies. For example, he could block Banco Santander’s US$12.3-billion bid for Webster Financial, a regional U.S. bank.
Spain is heavily reliant on the U.S. for liquefied natural gas, and it’s one of the EU’s main hubs for LNG imports. Higher gas prices could ripple through the economy and increase the price of most consumer goods, just as Spaniards are already complaining about the high cost of living. “The price of gas is very clear and it’s very direct to the Spanish consumer − and the Spanish voter,” said Juan Luis Manfredi, senior lecturer in foreign policy at the University of Castilla-La Mancha.
Mr. Sánchez has drawn some support from other European leaders. French President Emmanuel Macron and EU officials have expressed solidarity with Spain in response to Mr. Trump’s trade threat. But they have not directly opposed the air strikes, leaving Mr. Sánchez an outlier.