Sánchez, offside

In this strategy, some decisions are clearly aimed at scraping together votes from the far left ahead of a more or less imminent election in which the tactic of fearmongering about the far right will prove exhausted and corruption will lead to punishment, and the recourse will be to present himself as the great leader of the international left to the detriment of Sumar and Podemos.

Decisions that directly confront the current Trump administration, Israel, and also their European partners and allies, who for more than a year have not included Spain in key meetings of the core group of countries whose governments make the decisions: France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Ministers of Defense, Foreign Affairs, and the Interior have included Poland, for example, to the detriment of Spain.

The exclusion of Pedro Sánchez from the virtual meeting of European leaders organized by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz with Trump before his summit with Putin was rude and blunt. He was later placed in the Coalition of Volunteers for Ukraine. The same is true of the design of the new Europe, especially in security and defense. And now, of course, he is not accompanying Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski to his meeting with US President Donald Trump in Washington. The leaders of France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Finland, and the European Commission are going.

Sánchez, and unfortunately Spain, is reaping the exclusion and punishment from Washington, but also from its European partners, for Palestine, for refusing to increase the defense budget to 5% when it had signed up to do so at the NATO summit, for increasing relations with China on its own with contracts with the Huawei company that causes so much suspicion in the US and the EU, holding a summit in Latin America with far-left leaders sending messages that grate on all Western foreign ministries, and to top it all off, suspending the purchase of US F-35 aircraft. Some consequences have been immediate. Reports have been published in Brussels casting serious doubt on Sánchez, such as the amnesty law for Catalan separatists and the data on the billions of euros of European funds that remain unspent and are due to expire in 2026.

The loss of confidence caused by Sánchez's actions has led to a reduction in foreign investment in Spain and the removal of the port of Algeciras from US commercial container routes. He will continue with soccer and possible sanctions for some strange contract with the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo.