The discrepancies within the government with respect to the defense policy reach parliamentary headquarters. This Tuesday, the debate of two initiatives on the turn announced by President Pedro Sánchez, of a very different sign: one, of the PP, which supports to raise military spending as soon as possible, and another, of the BNG, which refuses to raise the investment in this matter and asks that Spain leave NATO. Neither of the two texts, even if they move forward when they vote on Thursday, will have legal effects. But they will serve to evide on the division generated by this matter In the coalition that form PSOE and add, among other things because the formation of the second vice president, Yolanda Díaz, will support (except for the last minute surprise) to leave the Atlantic Alliance.
Officially, Sumar continues to affirm that he will try until the last moment (that is, Thursday morning) that the BNG accepts the amendments they have proposedwhich basically seek to soften two points of the initiative. With respect to the 800,000 million proposed by the EU, the coalition wants the motion to ask them to invest in a “security” policy – not only of defense – that includes not only the military leg, but also the cybersecurity or industrial autonomy, and not to reject the implementation of the European program. And in relation to NATO, Sumar proposes a writing that affects the need for Europe to have a “disconnected” defense model of the Atlantic Alliance, but without expressly asking for the departure of it.
However, the BNG confirmed Tuesday morning that it will not accept any change and that it will force its motion to vote as it has presented it. And Sources of Sumar Movement, the formation within adding that it represents the Diaz sector, slide that they will vote in favor of it, as well as confirm sources from the rest of the parties of the Alliance. Therefore, add (predictably) green light to ask the government of which it is part to give up “to the participation of the Spanish State in NATOabandoning this military alliance and demanding its dissolution “, and will also reject any increase in military spending” since, assumes the motion, that “would result in the reduction of resources available to allocate social policies.”
It would be the first time that Díaz and his political family within adding openly ask for the departure of NATO Spain, since, since the debate on the European rearme began to take flight a few weeks ago, the vice president has avoided again and again positioning clearly on belonging to the Atlantic Alliance. While other legs of adding, such as IU, have expressly defended that the Government must address the output of NATO and the closure of the US military bases in Spain, the Secretary of Communication of Movement of Sumar, Elizabeth Duval, said a few days ago that the debate on the strategic autonomy of the EU It is not resolved with “slogans”, “proclamations” and “debates of the twentieth century”.
Division on the increase in military spending
Unlike what will add, the PSOE will vote against the points of the BNG initiative related to NATO or the opposition when rearma. And the government partners will not disagree only there: They will also do so in the proposition of the PP law which asks “to fulfill the commitments acquired by Spain with the Atlantic Alliance related to the investment in defense as soon as possible.” The Socialists confirmed on Tuesday that they will support that point and, in reality, all the others of the initiative except for the last one, which is the one who asks “to ensure that any decision that affects the position of Spain in relation to the war in Ukraine, the transatlantic link or the commitments with NATO is debated and approved by a majority in Congress.”
Add, on the contrary, will reject the proposition not of lawdespite the fact that sources of the coalition say that they share points such as the one that is committed to “reaffirm Spain’s commitment to territorial integrity and full sovereignty of Ukraine” or the one who asks “to defend the involvement of the EU and Ukraine in any negotiation relative to ending the war of Russian aggression.” And he will, his spokesman explained in Congress, Verónica Martínez, because he opposes the Spanish military spending – Sumar defends that the investment in security is launched at European level and pays the EU -, but also because the initiative is raised by the PP, a party whose defense policy is based on the “follow -up” of the US and that has made Spain of “illegal wars” in 2003.
The decision to add, however, also implies that will vote against asking for Congress to rule On Sánchez’s turn in his defense policy, although, in recent weeks, Díaz has been favorable to debate and vote in the lower house this end. At that point, in fact, it will be in the only one in which the positions of the PSOE and add coincide.
The PP took advantage of these discrepancies within the Executive to load against what he described as “An aimless government, without criteria and without word” which has become “a puzzle of contradictions”, in the words of the popular deputy Borja Sémper. Pedro Sánchez, criticized Sémper, “only speaks for a part of the government in terms of security and defense” and is limited to proclaiming “slogans, empty speeches and hollow photographs because it is not able to carry out a single real measure.”
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