Anti-military feeling in Spain could mean a battle ahead with Trump

The eurozone’s fourth-largest economy, Spain ranked last in the 32-nation military alliance last year for the share of its GDP that it contributed to the military, estimated to be 1.28%. That’s after NATO members pledged in 2014 to spend at least 2% of GDP on defence— a target that 23 countries were belatedly expected to meet last year amid concerns about the war in Ukraine.

Any major increase in the defence budget could mean trouble for Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez at home with a massive anti-military sentiment across the country. Defence ministers have already warned that increasing defence spending by European members would be very tough.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and others in his government have emphasized Spain’s commitment to European security and to NATO. Since 2018, Spain has increased its defense spending by about 50% from 8.5 billion euros ($8.9 billion) to 12.8 billion euros ($13.3 billion) in 2023.

The U.S. military maintains important military bases in Spain and a number of U.S. warships are based at the Rota naval base near Cadiz-.