His international profile once again becomes Pedro Sánchez’s great political asset. After a few first days in which he left the spotlight to his ministers, the president has decided to fully enter the political battle against the war unleashed by the attacks by Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu on Iran. Sánchez has multiplied international contacts in the last few hours to try to drag other leaders, especially the European ones, into the resounding “no to war” that he pronounced this Tuesday morning from La Moncloa.
The president has spoken with the Frenchman Emmanuel Macron, Ursula von der Leyen, António Costa and other European leaders, in addition to the Brazilian Lula da Silva, the Mexican Claudia Sheimbaum —“the position of the president of Spain in betting on peace is very respectable,” he said— and several leaders of the Arab countries, and below the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, and Sánchez’s team in La Moncloa are also moving to try to change the dominant position in Europe, initially very lukewarm against Trump, for another much more similar to that of the Spanish president himself.
Once again, his decisiveness in the clash with Trump and Netanyahu has had an impact especially on progressive European and American sectors, but not only. He Financial Times He has defined him as “Trump’s nemesis in Europe” while a large part of the European press highlighted his position of total clash with the US and Italian leaders. The Republic It directly opened its paper cover with a resounding four-column headline: “Sánchez: no to war.” But, in addition, there are constant messages on social networks and analysis of progressivism leaders from around the world praising the position of the Spanish leader, which generates both rejection on the right and support from a part of the left.
Meanwhile, Trump insists on attacking Sánchez. The president of the United States spoke with New York Post by phone this Thursday. In that conversation he called Spain a “loser” and stated that the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Keir Starmer, should support the US campaign against Iran “without a doubt.” “We have many winners, but Spain is a loser, and the United Kingdom has been very disappointing,” Trump declared. “(Spain) is very hostile to NATO,” he insisted.
Those around the president point out that in recent hours they are detecting changes in positions in different European foreign ministries, increasingly critical of Trump and Netanyahu’s war. And also in the Arabs, which in some cases in the Persian Gulf countries are beginning to make key decisions such as not allowing US planes to fly over their airspace to attack Iran, a decisive strategic issue because the fighters need to pass through there to reach Tehran. Other American, Asian and African countries are also very close to Sánchez in criticizing Trump’s war.
In La Moncloa they are convinced that little by little the positions, with some clear exceptions such as Germany, always close to Israel, will turn towards a situation more similar to that of the Iraq war, where the United States finally ended up being left alone with the support of Aznar and Toni Blair, the so-called “Azore trio”, which in reality was a quartet because the Portuguese José Manuel Durão Barroso was there. Even in Germany there are beginning to be editorials in the press criticizing Merz’s position and his trip to Washington, which has La Moncloa very upset because it played along with Trump when he attacked Spain. Albares publicly acknowledged that he called his German counterpart to complain about this attitude. In La Moncloa they also highlight that even Giorgia Meloni, always close to Trump, has finally broken her silence to say that she does not support this war, given the pressure that existed in public opinion in the neighboring country, and not only among progressives.
He no to warthey believe in Sánchez’s entourage, is transversal, not only left-wing, as happened in the Iraq war in 2003, when he managed to attract the support of 91% of Spaniards, including a majority of PP voters. If in 2003 Aznar’s position greatly eroded his party, the Government believes that now Alberto Núñez Feijóo risks a similar situation if he remains in a position close to Trump like that of Vox. Sánchez, yes, qualifies this no to war in Iran, without a UN umbrella, with the sending of a frigate to Cyprus to help in the defense against Tehran, also to demonstrate European commitment and above all that he has the same rejection of the ayatollah regime as the other European prime ministers.
The president’s strategists are confident that something similar to what happened with the recognition of Palestine will occur in the midst of Israel’s offensive on Gaza. At first, it seemed that Sánchez was very alone, with only Ireland for support, but little by little, as the massacre of Palestinians grew, several European countries turned and in the end even France and the United Kingdom ended up recognizing Palestine.
Sánchez is convinced that he was right and is willing to maintain his position although he is aware of the risk involved in a direct political confrontation with the White House. From the point of view of internal policy, Sánchez’s turn towards “no to war” has many advantages. It unites the majority, which is supporting this position, it reinforces the coalition, because Sumar feels comfortable in a Government that rejects the use of the US bases in Spain for the attack, returns the initiative and forces the PP to take sides and decide whether it is with Trump or not.
In September of last year, Sánchez started the political season with all the focus on Palestine, because the slaughter intensified and the European foreign ministries turned. At that time, after a very hard summer with Santos Cerdán’s entry into prison, the PSOE managed to stop the fall and even recovered slightly in the polls. It was something ephemeral, because later more news of the scandal arrived, José Luis Ábalos went to prison, and the PSOE fell again. But now, once again, the focus is once again on the international situation and there the president moves comfortably and is willing to take risks to defend a position that he believes has a lot of social support.
In La Moncloa they believe that Feijóo will also have to pivot and will not be able to sustain his support for this attack outside of international legality when the consequences for Spain and Europe of this decision by Trump and Netanyahu are fully seen: inflation, stock market crashes, economic problems due to the instability of one of the key areas of energy distribution in the world. At the moment the Government has already deployed the no to war campaign by all means and is associating Feijóo with Aznar, precisely when the leader of the PP vindicates the former president on the 30th anniversary of his electoral victory. “The PP continues to be the party of war,” insists Minister Albares. Sánchez’s team believes that Feijóo is not right in foreign policy because he has never been interested in it and does not control his logic.
“The PP is wrong when in international politics it only has one position: the opposite of what Sánchez says. They don’t stop to think. And their positions age very badly when other European leaders, also from the EPP, go towards the Spanish one, as happened with the recognition of Palestine by Portugal, for example,” they point out in La Moncloa. For all these reasons, everything indicates that Sánchez, who this Friday has a press conference precisely with the Portuguese leader, the moderate conservative Luís Montenegro, at a bilateral summit in Huelva, is determined to keep up with Trump at any cost and to cling to “no to war” as a message with a lot of political charge but also with detailed economic, geostrategic arguments and the self-interest of Spain and Europe.
