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It will be “very difficult” to reach an agreement with Sánchez, said the Conservative leader.
News Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
[Diego Radames/Europa Press via Getty Images]
MADRID – It will be “very difficult” to reach an agreement with Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez on measures Madrid should take to increase the Iberian country’s defence spending to 2% of GDP, right-wing opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo, lamented on Thursday.
Núñez Feijóo, the leader of the Spanish People’s Party (Partido Popular/EPP), the main opposition force in Parliament, met with Sánchez (PSOE/S&D) for talks on how the government intends to reach its target of increasing military spending (currently 1.8 of GDP) to 2% of GDP by 2029, or even earlier, as Sánchez suggested last week.
“Sánchez cannot speak on behalf of his government and, therefore, not even the place of the meeting (the Moncloa Palace, set of the government) is the best possible because he is receiving us to explain what the PSOE would do, but not what the government will do because he cannot speak for (his government partner) Sumar”, Núñez Feijóo stressed.
The Spanish PM discussed on Thursday with the leaders of the main political parties, with the exception of Vox (PfE), the third force in parliament, to elaborate on Madrid’s roadmap for collaborating in the EU’s collective effort to strengthen European defence, RTVE reported.
“Peace in Ukraine and prosperity in Europe are two sides of the same coin”, Sánchez said after the meeting on Thursday late afternoon.
The junior partner in the coalition government, the left-wing platform Sumar, rejects that an increase in military spending should come at the cost of cuts in social policies, the same position held by the far-left Podemos party, a former ally of Sumar.
Podemos’s leader, Ione Belarra, warned Sánchez that he is “digging his own grave’ by supporting the EU’s rearmament plan and pointed out that by doing so, the government ‘is rolling out the red carpet to a fascist government of PP and Vox’.
Vox supports the increase in defence spending but demands that Sánchez appear in parliament to provide detailed explanations of the measures needed.
The PP also urged Sánchez on Thursday that any increase in the military budget must be voted on in parliament.
Despite harsh criticism of Sánchez, on defence policy the PP follows the same line as its European People’s Party colleagues in Brussels, who unwaveringly support increased military spending in all EU partners.
(Fernando Heller | Euractiv.es)
Updated: 14-03-2025
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