Back to the load. The president of the United States, Donald Trump, has once again criticized Spain through a message on his social network, Truth. “Has anyone noticed how badly Spain is doing? Its economic figures, despite contributing practically nothing to NATO or its military defense, are absolutely disastrous. It’s very sad to see!” he wrote.
Trump’s statements once again collide with reality. The International Monetary Fund has just ranked Spain this week as one of the developed economies that will grow the most this year and next. According to the IMF’s economic forecasts, Spain will lead GDP growth among the countries of the European Union for five years. The Spanish labor market is also showing solid health. The labor market created 211,510 jobs in the best March in statistics, reaching 22 million members, a new record. Analysts use Spain as an example for its performance in recent years.
On the other hand, Spain contributes to NATO based on the agreement reached between the members of the Alliance last summer. Then it was agreed to increase defense spending from 2% to 5% of GDP. The Government of Pedro Sánchez warned that it would not reach that level because it considers that it can meet the military capabilities objective with a lower budget, of just over 2%, the equivalent of about 35,000 million euros. The Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, distanced himself from the joint agreement, but guaranteed that he would comply with his obligations regarding the objectives.
The Republican president’s message coincides with the celebration of the summit in defense of democracy that the Government of Spain is holding in Barcelona, where it has summoned progressive leaders from all over the planet this weekend. The event is making progressive unity visible against Donald Trump. The meeting has shown an unprecedented unity between leaders from different political traditions such as Pedro Sánchez, the Brazilian Lula da Silva, the Mexican Claudia Sheinbaum, the Colombian Gustavo Petro or the South African Cyril Ramaphosa with a common message against Donald Trump.
The latest salvo against Spain also occurs a few hours after he shared information published by the CBS network that echoed an exclusive carried out by EL PAÍS a couple of weeks ago about the decision of the Government of Pedro Sánchez to close the airspace for US military planes that carry out missions in Iran. “They have not been there for us,” the Republican president wrote in Truth on Friday.
