MADRID (AP) — While European military heavyweights have already declared that this meeting President Donald Trump’s potential challenge dedicating up to 5% of its economic output to security will not be easy, it would be a particularly ambitious challenge for Spain.
The fourth largest economy in the euro zone, Spain ranked last year last year in the 32-nation military alliance for the share of its GDP it contributed to the army, estimated at 1.28 %. It comes after NATO members pledged in 2014 to spend at least 2% of their GDP on defense – a target 23 countries were expected to meet late last year due to concerns over the war in Ukraine .
When pressed, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and other members of his government emphasized Spain’s commitment to European security and to NATO. Since 2018, Spain has increased its defense spending by around 50%, from 8.5 billion euros ($8.9 billion) to 12.8 billion euros ($13.3 billion). ) in 2023. After years of underinvestment, the Sánchez government says the increased spending is proof of Spain’s commitment. to achieve NATO’s 2% target by 2029.
But it would be difficult for Spain to spend even more – and more quickly –, defense analysts and former officials say, largely because of the southern European country’s unpopular policy of militarism. . The country’s history of dictatorship and its distance from Europe’s eastern flank also play a role.
“The truth is that defense spending is not popular in European countries, whether it is Spain or another European country,” said Nicolás Pascual de la Parte, former Spanish ambassador with NATO and currently a member of the European Parliament for the Spanish Conservative Popular Party. “After World War II, we became accustomed to delegating our ultimate defense to the United States of America through its military umbrella, and more specifically its nuclear umbrella. »
“It’s true that we have to spend more,” Pascual de la Parte said of Spain.
The policy of military spending
Spain joined NATO in 1982, a year after the isolated young democracy survived an attempted coup by its armed forces and seven years after the end of 40 years of military dictatorship led by Gen. Francisco Franco. In a 1986 referendum, a slim majority of Spaniards voted to remain in the alliance, but it was not until 1999 that the country, now the fourth largest country in Europe by population terms, joined the NATO military structure.
In this sense, “we are a very young member of NATO,” said Carlota Encina, a defense and security analyst at the Elcano Royal Institute think tank in Madrid.
Opinion polls generally show that military involvement is unpopular with Spanish voters. An overwhelming majority of Spaniards were opposed to their country’s involvement in the Iraq War in 2003, according to polls at the time, but support for NATO has grown in recent years.
Around 70% of Spaniards were in favor of NATO sending military equipment, weapons and ammunition to Ukraine soon after the start of Russian operations. large-scale invasion of the country, according to a March 2022 survey by the state-owned Center for Sociological Studies, or CIS. But only about half favored Spain increasing its own defense budget, according to another CEI survey conducted that month.
Across the board, political analysts and former Spanish politicians say militarism is simply not great politics. Madrid is almost 3,000 kilometers west of Kyiv, unlike the capitals of Poland, Estonia or Latvia, which are closer and have exceeded the alliance’s 2% target based on estimates from last year.
Ignasi Guardans, a former Spanish member of the European Union Parliament, said many Spaniards appreciate their military for its humanitarian efforts and aid work, such as helping thousands of troops. supplied after Valencia’s destructive flash floods last year.
“Now the army has regained some respect,” Guardans said, “but it’s not NATO.”
Encina said Spanish politicians generally feel much more pressure to spend publicly on other issues. “It’s something that politicians here always feel and fear,” she said. The thinking is: “Why should we invest in defense and not in social issues? »
International missions
Spanish leaders stress that although they have not yet reached NATO’s budget floor, it is unfair to consider the country’s contributions to NATO only as a percentage of GDP to measure its commitments to Europe and his own safety.
Officials often talk about the various EU and UN missions and deployments, saying that through them the country contributes in a positive way.
“Spain, as a member of NATO, is a serious, trustworthy, responsible and committed ally,” Defense Minister Margarita Robles said this week. following comments made by Trump » to a journalist who asked the American president about NATO’s low spending. “And right now we have more than 3,800 men and women in peace missions, many of them with NATO,” Robles said.
The Spanish armed forces are deployed in 16 missions abroad, according to the Ministry of Defense, with ground forces participating in NATO missions in Latvia, Slovakia and Romania and almost 700 soldiers in Lebanon as part of the country’s largest UN mission.
Spain also shares the naval bases of Morón and Rota, in the south of the country, with the US Navy, which stations six AEGIS destroyers at the Rota base in Cádiz.
Sliding measures
Analysts also point out that the Spanish government regularly spends more on defense than budgeted, thanks to extraordinary contributions that can exceed the official budget in some years by 20 to 30 percent.
“The reality is that it’s not all very transparent,” Guardans said.
Pascual de la Parte, who served as Spain’s ambassador to NATO from 2017 to 2018, said the 2% figure should not be the only measure, as not all NATO members keep track of their budgets defense in the same way.
“There is no agreement among allies on the choice of criteria that determine the real spending effort,” he said, adding that, for example, if some countries include elements like pensions of soldiers in their accounting, others do not. “Ultimately, they can concern very disparate realities.”
