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The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchezhas announced an agreement with the Take In order not to upload the military spending of Spain to 5% of the gross domestic product (GDP): “We respect the legitimate desire of other countries to increase their investment in defense, if they would like it, but we are not going to do it.”

A pact that has described as “Very positive” For Spain and for NATO since it allows “to comply with the Atlantic Alliance” and “preserve its unit” without increasing 5%defense expense, in addition to detailing that Spain’s participation in the alliance and mutual commitments “remain intact.”

“The Government of Spain has been saying the same thing (…) We understand the difficulty of the geopolitical context. We respect, how can it be otherwise, fully the legitimate desire of other countries to increase their investment in defense, if they wanted it, but we are not going to do it,” said the executive leader in an institutional statement.

This has been expressed after last Thursday the executive leader sent a letter to the NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte, in which he was transferred that Spain could not commit to increasing the 5% defense expenditure of GDP at the top of the next week and raised or that an exception was either made or that the objective is “optional.”

“Going from 2% to 5% would demand to spend about 350,000 million”

Sanchez has alleged three reasons not to upload military spending. First, because in the case of Spain 5% of GDP in defense “would be disproportionate and unnecessary.” Thus, he explained that, regarding the abilities objectives that each NATO ally has to achieve in the next few years, each country “will need to invest a different amount of money depending on its GDP to achieve it.”

“Some will have to invest 5% of their GDP, others much less. And that asymmetry, that difference is normal and is also inevitable since there are very notable economic differences between allies,” he said.

In this regard, he said that Spain will need to dedicate about 2%, specifically 2.1% of its GDP, “neither more nor less.” For the Government of Spain it makes no sense to commit to spending 5% of GDP in defense. Because doing so would force us to breach our word, to also waste thousands of millions of euros or, paradoxically, it would not make us safer or better allies, “he has wielded.

Secondly, because Europe “needs to advance in its strategic autonomy” and “it has to be able to protect.” “To achieve this, the key is not to spend anymore, it is to spend better, it is to spend together (…) to precipitate ourselves artificially to 5% would not help us achieve any of those objectives. On the contrary,” he said, indicating that a 5% rise would mean “sending more and more money to the industry of other countries and being increasingly dependent on them”, in addition to, in their opinion, damage, damage, damage national economic growth.

And, thirdly, it has asserted that an expense of 5% would be “incompatible” with the welfare state, while that 2% is “perfectly compatible” with the response to the capabilities asks for NATO and with the maintenance of the welfare state. However, he stressed that moving from 2% to 5% “would force to cross red lines” such as “drastically” taxes.

“Moving from 2% to 5% from here to 2035 would demand to spend about 350,000 million euros that could only be achieved based on raising each worker taxes in about 3,000 euros per year. Eliminate unemployment benefits, disease and maternity. Reduce all pensions by 40%. Or cut in half the state investment in education from zero years to the university,” he has transmitted.

Celebrates “an effective and loyal negotiation”

In this way, he has claimed “the right” and “the obligation” of each NATO member of “choosing whether or not you want to assume those sacrifices”: “And we, as a sovereign country, choose not to do so. We choose to find a better balance between the need to strengthen our security and our defense and the demand to continue facing social, economic, environmental challenges.”

“Logically the heralds of the disaster and lies will say that this agreement breaks the NATO unity and leaves Spain out of its protective umbrella, but citizens must be calm and know that none of these things is true,” he said.

With this, he has celebrated “a discreet, effective and loyal diplomatic negotiation with the allies” who “safeguards the sovereignty of Spain while guaranteeing the success of the NATO summit next week in the Dutch city of The Hague”: “Something for which we are proud and also grateful to the secretary general of NATO, my friend Mark Rutte and the rest of the allies of NATO.”

“The agreement we have achieved today I think it is a success because it will allow Spain to continue being a first -order global actor (…) Humanity today needs more security, but also much more diplomacy, much more cooperation and solidarity between countries and therefore more hope,” he concluded.