Spanish Socialist Prime Minister Sánchez Rejects Trump’s Demands That NATO Countries Spend 5% of GDP on Defense, Throws Summit Plans Into Disarray

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Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.It’s been a rough ride for failing Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.Mired by repeated corruption scandals in his Socialist party, Sánchez had to apologize to citizens for the alleged criminal activity inside his government, all the while trying not to call for early elections.But one would think he doesn’t have enough problems yet, since now the Spaniard has thrown a spanner in the works of the next NATO summit.The Telegraph reported:“Spain has rejected Donald Trump’s ‘unreasonable’ demand that Nato members increase defense spending, throwing plans for a summit of alliance leaders into disarray.Next week’s meeting in the Hague has been carefully designed to convince the US president to continue supporting Europe’s defense. However, the refusal by Pedro Sánchez, the prime minister of Spain, to commit to a new defense spending target of 5 per cent of GDP has jeopardized the carefully choreographed diplomacy.”The Spanish decision is a blow to NATO’s Mark Rutte.Trump has floated withdrawing US protection from allies which don’t commit to the new target, but Sánchez is asking for Spain to be exempt from any spending target.“The letter from Europe’s most influential Left-wing leader is a blow for [NATO Secretary General Mark] Rutte and could embolden the few other members reluctant to sign up to the 5 per cent.” | No paran los gritos a Sánchez: «¡Pedro Sánchez, hijo de puta!» pic.twitter.com/ndjdEQSPEC— ʜᴇʀQʟᴇs (@herqles_es) May 29, 2025The leftist leader argues that the spending target would mean raising taxes on the middle class and cutting ‘Net Zero’ nonsense spending.In 2024, Spain spent just 1.28 per cent of GDP on defense.BREAKING: @POTUS Trump Announces That IF @NATO COUNTRIES REFUSE TO SPEND 2% OF GDP ON DEFENSE, THE U.S. WILL NOT DEFEND THEM!The U.S. Spends Around 3.4% Or More, Poland Leads At 4.1%…But Some Countries Like Spain & Canada Spend Below 1.5%. pic.twitter.com/lkSW0NB39H— John Basham (@JohnBasham) March 6, 2025Read more:Spanish Socialist PM Pedro Sánchez APOLOGIZES for the Multiple Corruption Scandals in His Government, but Refuses To Call for Early Elections/*! This file is auto-generated */!function(d,l){"use strict";l.querySelector&&d.addEventListener&&"undefined"!=typeof URL&&(d.wp=d.wp||{},d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage||(d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if((t||t.secret||t.message||t.value)&&!/[^a-zA-Z0-9]/.test(t.secret)){for(var s,r,n,a=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),o=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),c=new RegExp("^https?:$","i"),i=0;i