Pedro Sánchez wants to raise the Spain’s military spending and for this he will ask for the support of all the groups in Congress. “In NATO’s new Strategic Concept we are reinforcing our deterrence capacity to defend democracy. For this reason, we have committed ourselves to raising our defense budget to 2% of GDP by 2029,” he defends. As he explained in an interview, the President of the Government will ask the parties for support to increase defense spending in the next General State Budgets for 2023, which will begin to be negotiated soon. “It must be a country agreement, we must be responsible & rdquor ;, he warns, before point to the space to the “left of the PSOE”.
“It is a debate that we have to face in Spain both from the point of view of right wing parties as in the progressive political space”, he stressed on TVE.
Without expressly citing United We Can and other critical parties with the Atlantic Alliance, Sánchez has underlined the need to be in this club. “NATO is an alliance of democracies in defense of democracy, and democracy must be defended by increasing our deterrence capabilities (…) Beyond Europe and what NATO represents, the world is very complicated, It is very difficult, it is very cold”, warned the head of the Government.
open the discussion
The Chief Executive therefore called for “meeting this objective” and recalled that the Allies had already set an increase in spending in those terms at the NATO Summit held in Wales in 2014. He also indicated that the aforementioned goal ” transcends the legislature” so he will ask that it be a country commitment and that all political forces recognize it as such.
In this context, he recalled that Spain has committed to approaching 2% of GDP in defense spending until 2029 and has insisted that this debate must be opened in Spain. In addition, he has emphasized that the decision economically favors autonomies such as Galicia or Andalusia.
Regarding United We Can’s rejection of the increase in number of US destroyers at the Rota naval base (Cádiz), Sánchez has highlighted that this is a decision that is part of “country agreements.”
Sánchez: “NATO is an alliance of democracies in defense of democracies. Democracy defends itself by increasing our deterrence capabilities” https://t.co/W2XU5eYbgg#LHPedroSánchez pic.twitter.com/jS0x4jyGGv
– The Hour of 1 (@LaHoraTVE) June 30, 2022
“We have to be responsible and in solidarity with a certain threat that we are suffering,” he added before considering that it would be important that both the increase in defense spending and the presence of two new US ships in Rota had the approval of all the forces policies. “I’m going to ask everyone” has settled.
Robles’ call to the PP
Defense Minister, Margaret Oakstelephoned this Thursday the deputy secretary of Institutional of the PP, Esteban Gonzalez Pons to inform him of the agreement with the US, which will mean the arrival of two new destroyer ships at the Rota military base (Cádiz), but not to directly ask for his support, according to sources close to the minister, according to reports Juanma Romero.
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In any case, the PP has already made it clear, without publicly revealing its vote, that it will not hinder the modification of the agreement with the US when it passes through the Cortes Generales. This same Thursday, the general secretary of the PP, Cuca Gamarra, showed her willingness to double defense spending.
In any case, there is still no date for it to be agreed upon by the Council of Ministers.