Sánchez signs up to 5% of NATO spending and then immediately applies the ‘D factor’

1. It wasn't me, it was the Armed Forces
2. His counterparts have avoided coming face to face with Sánchez

In the next line, Sánchez has made a blanket statement, acting according to his own personal criteria without taking into account the agreement recently reached collectively by the 32 members of the Atlantic Alliance, and has applied his powerful and devastating secret weapon, which is none other than the ‘D factor’, which, I remind you, means ‘do whatever you want’.

Without batting an eyelid, Sánchez has reluctantly and grudgingly signed up to the proposal presented by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte of the Netherlands to increase defence spending and investment to 5 per cent by 2035. Sánchez, stubborn as ever, has spoken out against the proposal, assuring that Spain, with 2.1 per cent of GDP, ‘will meet the capability targets it has committed to in a timely manner’.

And at the press conference held at the end of the summit, in response to questions from a journalist, he confirmed that Spain will allocate 2.1 per cent and not 5 per cent, like the rest of the NATO members, perhaps because Spaniards are smarter than the rest. He stressed that this percentage ‘is a sustained budget, which we will maintain over time to meet our capability targets’.

Another Spanish journalist asked him whether ‘some allies, and also the NATO Secretary General, doubt that with 2.1 per cent of GDP’ it will be possible to achieve what was agreed in the Capability Goals document signed on 5 June by Defence Minister Margarita Robles at NATO headquarters in Brussels. The president dodged the question and replied that ‘I am not the one who said 2.1 per cent’..

It wasn't me, it was the Armed Forces

He argues that ‘it is the Armed Forces, it is the Ministry of Defence, which says that these capabilities that have been agreed by us and the rest of the member states within the Atlantic Alliance can be met with 2.1 per cent of our GDP. Therefore, it wasn't me’. With almost eight years as prime minister, it is regrettable, to say the least, that Sánchez confuses the Armed Forces with the Ministry of Defence.

If any of the leaders attending the Alliance conclave had any lingering doubts about the complex personality of the Spanish president, yesterday, Wednesday 25 June, they will have seen how Pedro Sánchez is capable of putting on a facade to enhance an aggressive face and, without the slightest blush, make one statement and then the opposite in the space of a few seconds.

Paragraph 3 of the Hague Declaration states that the allies agree that 5 per cent shall comprise two essential categories of defence investment. At least 3.5 per cent of their annual GDP by 2035 must be dedicated to ‘funding basic defence needs and meeting NATO's Capability Goals’. To ensure compliance, the 32 countries agree to ‘submit annual plans showing a credible and progressive path to achieving the goal’.

The 32 leaders agree to contribute up to 1.5% of annual GDP to protect critical infrastructure, defend networks, ensure civil preparedness and resilience, promote innovation and strengthen the defence industrial base. They also proclaim that the trajectory and balance of overall spending under the plan ‘will be reviewed in 2029 in light of the strategic environment and updated capability goals’.

Thus, NATO is willing to give Pedro Sánchez some leeway to show that with 2.1% he is capable of achieving what the remaining 31 nations assume they need with 5%. To verify this, Alliance technicians will be breathing down Spain's neck year after year to check whether the Sánchez government is keeping its word.

His counterparts have avoided coming face to face with Sánchez

In an urgent analysis, Pedro Sánchez has played several cards at the recently concluded NATO summit. It should be borne in mind that the president's day-to-day life is gripped by three iron clamps, which suffocate him a little more with each passing day. Firstly, there is the political and economic blackmail to which he is subjected by his government partners, who are the ones who pull his chestnuts out of the fire in Congress votes, but only sometimes.

On the other hand, there is the noose around his neck due to the alleged corruption that pervades his immediate family and his party, which is dangerously and steadily closing in on him. 

With each passing day, the loss of his already limited credibility and international influence, however little Sánchez may have had on the global stage, becomes more evident. Here are some recent examples. His counterparts in The Hague avoided meeting face to face with the Spanish president so as not to be caught in conversation or dialogue by television cameras and photographers.

Pedro Sánchez was only able to exchange a few words with Turkish President Erdogan, who was sitting next to him in the room where the summit was held. But he did not exchange a single word, except for a polite ‘good morning’ and little else, with his neighbours at the table, the prime ministers of Sweden, Ulf Kristersson, and Slovenia, Robert Golob, given that they were sitting next to him, something that was pointed out by journalists at the press conference.

Another clear example of his lack of influence over the leaders of democratic countries is that Sánchez did not take advantage of the presence in the Dutch city of 31 senior leaders from Europe, Canada and the United States to hold any important bilateral meetings with any of them, not even one.