The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, today made official the announcement on which he had already been working, paving the way for public opinion, that Spain will double defense spending, reaching the commitment to reach 2% of GDP on the horizon of 2029. This would basically mean exceeding 26,000 million euros on that date, since at present -according to the figures handled by NATO- Spain allocates some 13,100 million and remains the second country of the Alliance that invests the least in Defense. In the forecasts for 2022, the Alliance estimates that it will barely invest 1.01% of GDP, almost three-tenths less than the last year 2021. Only Luxembourg spends less: 0.58%.

Spain arrived at the NATO Summit in Madrid with the aim of gaining prestige and showing itself to the allies as a reliable and committed partner. And for this, one of the key gestures to visualize that government commitment was to increase the budget for Defense. Sánchez announced it in an interview on TVE’s “La hora de la 1”, in which he carried out an important educational exercise on the meaning of the Alliance, as an instrument for the “defense of values” and to “reinforce the deterrence capacity.

The president has addressed those political parties that question NATO to define it as an “alliance of democracies in defense of democracy”, without “expansionist whims”. “Beyond the European Union, the world is very complicated. We have to defend our way of life”, explained Sánchez, who has presented the defense budget increase as “a country commitment” that “transcends the legislature”, since the time horizon is located in 2029.

From the Government, the rest of the parties are asked to be “responsible and supportive” and reminded them of the “demand to reinforce security capacities in the South”. The commitment with Biden to expand the American fleet at the Rota base (Cádiz) with two new destroyers is framed in this line. Both to increase budget spending on Defense and for this last issue, Sánchez understands that “it would be important to have the approval of all forces.” Something very complicated.

For this reason, the efforts of the Executive are directed toward the PP, as a priority, instead of towards the government partners, who are very critical of this matter. In fact, in the successive interviews that the president is giving during these days of the summit, he has systematically avoided referring to United We Can and limits himself to asking for the support of the parties “to the left of the PSOE”. The Government they have already contacted the PP to seek their support for the expansion of destroyers in Rota, Minister Robles telephoned the popular yesterday to ask for their support, after Genoa showed her willingness.

This has been confirmed in an interview on Antena 3’s “Espejo Público” by the PP spokesperson in Congress, Cuca Gamarra, who has also shown her willingness to approve the increase in defense spending. “ The PP is a party of Government, of State, of service to Spain and we did not fail the Spaniards”, she pointed out.