Spanish Socialist Is a Problem for NATO | The American Spectator

Spain has become a “problem” for NATO because socialist president Pedro Sanchez is a problem for Spain. The cold reception he received at the NATO summit in The Hague due to his public rejection of the 5 percent defense spending increase demanded by president Trump may seem embarrassing for the Spanish leader, but could help him domestically by rallying leftist support for his scandal plagued government.

While Sanchez was being chastised by Trump, opposition conservative lawmakers in Spain, cried in chorus for his resignation during sessions of Spain’s Parliament. “I only need four more votes to pass a censure motion” said center right Popular Party leader Nunez Feijo.

They could come from the four parliamentary representatives of the communist Podemos Party who have distanced themselves from cascading corruption scandals involving Sanchez’s closest aides and relatives. They could stand to gain votes from disenchanted socialists in snap elections, but by confronting Trump and NATO, Sanchez may maneuver them back into his fold.

“My Atlanticism does not mean servitude to Trump” Sanchez declared at a press conference following the NATO summit, stating that the increased defense expenditure required by the Alliance does not square with his signature social programs and climate change projects backed by far left and separatist groups.

Since winning the presidency with a narrow plurality in 2019, Sanchez has walked a fine line between his European tailored centrist image and the radical leanings of far left groups, regional separatists and former terrorists who support his “progressive coalition.”

He has gone all out against Israel over the war in Gaza, maintaining Spanish aid to NGOs identified as fronts for Hamas and even blocking the purchase of Israeli small caliber ammunition for Spain’s internal security force, the Guardia Civil.

Sanchez’s first official overseas trip upon assuming Spain’s presidency was to Cuba to embrace Castro puppet premiere Diaz Canel as his socialist representatives voted against denouncing the communist regime’s human rights record at the European parliament.

As the EU point man for Latin America, Sanchez slow walked sanctions on Venezuela’s Maduro regime which has laundered massive amounts of money through Spanish banks and has a former Spanish president acting as lobbyist. He has pulled close to China which is investing heavily in lithium battery factories, EV assembly plants and solar parks in Spain. The deals even involve bringing in thousands of Chinese workers slotted to occupy entire towns. He is one of the EU’s most enthusiastic supporters of open borders, encouraging a record flow of African migrants even as other European countries start clamming up.

Despite his efforts to control the press and social media using the EU Digital Services Act, which he enthusiastically promoted at this year’s WEF meeting in Davos, Spain’s newspapers, private television news channels, and lively Youtube podcasts air daily revelations of his government’s sordid affairs, which are widely commented on in the European media.

The latest and most serious accusations involve efforts to block investigations by the Guardia Civil into systematic kickbacks from government contractors to his transport minister and political right hand man, Jose Luis Abalos. The attorney general is now indicted, the justice minister is being investigated for false testimony, Sanchez’s wife and his brother are indicted on various charges including misuse of public funds.

“The entire government has become a criminal organization managing illegal schemes for the enrichment of socialist bosses and underhanded financing of the party,” the head of the international law department at the Complutense University of Madrid, Ramon Peralta, told The American Spectator.

But the opposition is stuck. Even with Socialist elder statesmen like Felipe Gonzales, who brought Spain into NATO, calling for the resignation of Sanchez, he remains determined to stay in power. Any possibility that the seven Catalan separatist MPs supporting his “Progressive Coalition” could jump ship was dashed this week when Sanchez won approval for a constitutionally questionable amnesty for separatist leaders charged with treason by packing the constitutional tribunal that judged the case with his judges.

“We are seeing a degradation of democracy in Spanish politics” declared Dutch Euro MP Dirk Gotink before the European parliament. “The rule of law in Spain is being dismantled,” concurred his Polish colleague Michal Wawrykiewicz. Spain is becoming the extreme manifestation of a phenomenon running throughout the EU, in which several countries are now imposing contrived governing arrangements blocking surging conservative populist movements from power. Their increasingly brazen modus operandi has clear blessings from the EU commission, whose president, Ursula Von der Leyen, is herself facing serious corruption allegations and is the object of a censure motion presented by more than 80 Euro MPs calling for her resignation.

NATO’s problem is not only about defense expenditure. The Western alliance could be undermined by the eroding legitimacy of globalist castes clinging to power in member countries. It’s a situation leading to arbitrary power grabs, distorted policies, and social tensions that can be easily exploited by Russia and China to undermine collective Western defense.

Trump has threatened to “make Spain pay” for the increase in defense spending agreed on by other NATO members by doubling tariffs on Spanish imports. Sanchez says that Spanish trade with the U.S. is protected by the EU. But a trade deal with the U.S. being worked out prior to the NATO summit now appears to be on the rocks.

Radicalized socialist governments know how to retain power under deteriorating economic conditions that they often turn to their advantage. A prominent lawyer involved in national security matters who requested anonymity, fears that Sanchez sees Venezuela’s regime as a “model.”

Any U.S. economic pressures on Spain need to be accompanied by political action. Sanchez could be beaten at his tribal politics. The Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) which holds five votes in Spain’s parliament is a Christian Democratic group that opposed the separatist terrorism of ETA , whose political heirs hold six seats in Spain’s parliament highly loyal to Sanchez.

The U.S. supported the regional Basque government formed by the PNV by channeling funds for the training of a Basque security force by former British special forces personnel contracted through the London security firm, Control Risks. The U.S. might have ways to leverage the PNV to overlook its historical grudge against the Spanish right due to the repression of Basque nationalism under the Franco dictatorship a half a century ago, and join PP to oust Sanchez.

NATO could pay a heavy price if Spain drifts into instability under a leftist megalomaniac seeking to sell his country and Europe to China. A Spanish exit from NATO could endanger Western control over the strategic straits of Gibraltar connecting the Atlantic with the Mediterranean where the Spanish navy has recently detected stepped up Russian naval activity. Putin would be very pleased.

In one of the juiciest anecdotes emerging from the latest scandalous saga of Spain’s socialists, a hard drive found hidden in the panties of a girlfriend of former minister Abalos searched by the Guardia Civil as she left his home, contained recordings of pillow talk in which Abalos calls Sanchez “mimundi,” a colloquial term describing someone without power or influence. Sanchez is hell bent on proving that he isn’t one. The future of NATO may depend on making sure he is.

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