Spain told European allies it would spend more on defense, faster. Back home, it’s a harder sell
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez speaks with the media as he arrives for an EU Summit at the European Council building in Brussels, Thursday, March 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)
MADRID (AP) — Spain’s prime minister has told European allies recently that his country is willing to spend more on defense — and faster — as the continent scrambles to rearm, faced with potential U.S. disengagement.
But Pedro Sánchez ‘s pitch this week to political leaders back home reveals there’s no easy path to make good on those pledges.
Sánchez met with the leaders of nine Spanish political parties to discuss increasing the defense budget after announcing last week that Spain would accelerate plans to hit NATO’s target of 2% of GDP on military expenditure. It currently spends the least of any NATO member — just an estimated 1.28% of GDP last year.
The Socialist leader of the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy heads a minority government with hard-left coalition partners that oppose defense and military increases. And a bitter relationship with the largest party in Parliament, the opposition conservative Popular Party, makes it unlikely the two parties could cut a deal.
After meeting the Spanish leader on Thursday, the Popular Party’s leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo said Sánchez has no plan, and that any increase should go through Parliament.
“A government that hasn’t been able to govern under normal circumstances is hardly prepared to face an extraordinary situation like this,” Feijóo said.
Less contentious issues have proven difficult for Sánchez to garner support; his government is still using the budget from 2023 because he hasn’t managed enough votes to pass a new one.
There’s also reluctance among Sánchez’s own allies, said Antonio Fonfría, an economics professor at Spain’s Complutense University of Madrid who specializes in defense issues.
“One part of the government doesn’t agree with spending increases in defense, because it thinks it will be at the detriment of other types of spending, for example social spending, health, or education,” said Fonfría.
Sánchez has not said exactly when or how Spain will reach the target, and has stressed that doing so will not affect social spending.
European and NATO leaders have called on members to increase their military budgets after U.S. President Donald Trump cast doubt on U.S. commitment to the transatlantic alliance and pointed fingers at European countries for not contributing enough.
“Spain is very low,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office in January when asked about Spain’s NATO contributions.
At a February summit with European leaders in Kyiv, Sánchez pledged another 1 billion euros ($1.09 billion) to Ukraine in military assistance, as it did last year. Spain’s Defense Minister Margarita Robles emphasized Spain’s commitment to Ukraine, pointing out at a meeting Friday with Ukraine’s defense minister, Rustem Umerov, that Spain has trained some 7,000 Ukrainian troops since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country.
In making his pitch for more military spending at home, Sánchez has acknowledged that Spain faces different security threats than eastern European or Nordic countries.
“Our threat is not Russia bringing its troops across the Pyrenees,” he said Thursday, referring to the mountain range dividing France and Spain. “When we talk about Russia it’s more a hybrid threat. It’s the threat of cyber attacks. So what we have to do is not just talk about defense, but fundamentally talk about security.”
Sánchez has downplayed ideological differences about defense spending among members of his coalition, and hasn’t ruled out using executive action.
Even if he were to pursue that approach, Spain’s strong economic growth could make his challenge greater. Last year, Spain’s economy grew faster than any major advanced economy at 3%, smashing the 0.08% eurozone average, according to Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development data.
That means a larger price tag to meet the 2% of GDP target — which NATO leaders have signaled they could again increase in coming months.