Back to the five percent

It is well known that when a leading politician goes out of his way to lose all his hard-earned prestige and becomes the target of criticism and even ridicule of a certain weight and significance due to its source and impact (such as being a figurehead or an outsider, a Teflon man or even a coward), in the international arena, not only is his image, prestige, and future political career ruined or impoverished to insurmountable and impossible levels, but he also drags down the nation and the citizens he represents.

Sánchez made a serious miscalculation in thinking that, as is customary for him, he would be able to convince his government partners and coalition colleagues to finally reach 2% of GDP to meet the former (2014) commitment on defense spending without having to approve new budgets or touch a single cent of the depleted social spending committed years ago.

No one understood how he could go from just over 1% in real terms to that level without touching any of the other state expenditures; therefore, those who had to endorse such a feat distrusted his word, his path, and his intentions, and increasingly jeopardized Spain's ability to meet the minimum minimorum that could be demanded of it after many years of failing to meet it and being at the bottom of the list of all its partners in the Alliance.

He had to pull one of his usual rabbits out of the hat to make a splash with his supporters, take a step forward, deceive those who are not his staunchest followers and even NATO as a whole, and shift the bulk of the economic problem to another government, knowing full well that it would not be his.

To do this, he once again set his Machiavellian machinery in motion and saw an opportunity to take advantage of the fact that the old 2% had been left far behind because it was no longer useful for facing new challenges and threats.

In preliminary contacts prior to the Hague Summit, he received a clear message that the figure now being discussed had been increased to 3.5% in the first five years to cover pure defense spending and another 1.5% as additional spending over the following five years.

As the figures being discussed to reach these levels were far from reality without budgets and without a major additional effort—which had been repeatedly denied to date—on a Sunday afternoon, with no audience or media present, a “press conference” was invented in which, without prior notice and with great solemnity, after exchanging two recent urgent letters with the NATO Secretary General, it had decided—unilaterally and without consulting Parliament or the opposition—that Spain would not accept the required levels since, according to calculations made, according to him, by his ‘Armed Forces’, it was sufficient to spend 2.1% to cover all the needs and commitments approved by NATO for the next four years.

After a long dispute full of denials and hidden bad intentions in different ‘interpretations’ of clear and unambiguous English, last Monday he set off for The Hague determined to stand by his word and calculations in the face of all objections and the fuss and recommendations of the other allies.

He arrived there like a naughty or very angry child who does not want to eat or join the rest of his classmates, greeting almost no one, and contrary to what has always been his habit, hiding from bilateral meetings, especially with Trump, standing further away than the group photos would suggest, so much so that he looked like the security guard watching over the group and providing security for the others.

Without saying much and without complaint, he signed, like all the members of the Alliance, the renowned 5% agreement, but immediately afterwards, he made every effort at a press conference to promise actively and passively that he would not comply with what was expressed there under any circumstances.

So much for the summary of the facts. I will now try to outline or discern the reasons that led him to such a terrible performance and poor image. They are very simple, as he tends to think everything is, except that these “trifles” to keep him in his seat in the Moncloa always splash and fill Spain and the Spanish people with filth.

In my humble opinion, I believe that the evil and devious president devised and carried out such a maneuver to achieve, among other minor objectives: to appear before his supporters and his close circle as the brave, albeit reckless, man who twisted Trump's arm, without caring about the certain and unflattering consequences for Spain that this bad move will have; he sought someone else to blame for his miscalculation, shifting the blame for obtaining the 2.1% figure to the Armed Forces, and I am sure that the General Staff of the two Armies and the Navy have not said a single word about this; he shifted the problem of complying with the agreed commitment of 3.5% to the government that will be governing Spain in three years' time, which will very possibly be of the opposite political persuasion, and finally, he managed to get his government and coalition partners (those who had denied him the 2%) to approve the figure he proposed, which is even slightly higher in order to throw people off the scent, as a lesser evil and presenting it as the only solution.