Discrepancies over Spain’s military spending in 2023 continue to rage between Can and Add with the PSOE. This Wednesday, during the control session, the Podemos spokesperson in Congress, Javier Sánchez Serna, accused the Executive of hiding the real data of these items “to avoid a scandal in public opinion and enrich arms manufacturers.
The purple deputy has stated before the Minister of Defense, Margaret Robles, that the figures for military spending in Spain are higher than those offered by the Government. “They cheat with accounting (…) the hidden in opaque items from other ministries and in accounting devices.” Although both Podemos and Sumar were at different times in 2023 as part of the Government coalition, the truth is that both formations have always positioned themselves against raising the items. military.
In this sense, Sánchez Serna has assured that, to calculate the investment in this area, one must not only look at the budget of the Ministry of Defense, but rather look at “other items from other ministries” that end up in the Armed Forces, but are not intended to improve the situation of the military. This means, according to the Podemos deputy, that the real investment in Defense is 1.5% of GDP and not the 1.2% that the Executive says.
Sánchez Serna has stated that this information can be seen through institutions such as the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), which has “doubled the spending figures provided by the Government”. According to the report published this week, Spain’s military spending would have increased by 9.8% last year compared to 2022 and by 42% in the last ten years. This increase means that the State allocated a total of 23,700 million dollars (22,223 million euros) to this sector in 2023.
Likewise, Podemos also criticizes the “Orwellian rhetoric” when it says that “investing in Defense is investing in peace.” “The warlords are determined to redouble it, more weapons, more bombs and the more destructive, the better,” he said, before recalling that “Spain is the country of no to war” that already took to the streets in 2003. “What has happened that they have abandoned the no to the war and have decided to support all the war plans of the American Administration“?” he asked himself.
In her turn to reply, the Minister of Defense defended that, as the President of the Government said several weeks ago, “Spain’s neighborhood is increasingly unstable and conflictive”, so “increasing diplomatic ties is not going to be sufficient (…) and to guarantee security and deter those who do not share the project of peace and democracy that is Europe, Europeans have to strengthen the security and defense industry“.
Furthermore, he has insisted that investment in Defense also reinforces the Spanish business fabric and that the Armed Forces are “an engine for economic development, national prosperity and humanitarian aid.” “The Spanish Defense industry has contributed 17.3 billion, 1.31%, to the GDP and has created more than 210,000 direct and indirect highly qualified jobs,” he stated, before adding that “investing in Defense means reinforcing deterrence, “is investing in peace and therefore the only way to avoid wars.”
The PP calls for the resignation of Robles
When last week the Council of Ministers approved a military spending item of 1.13 billion euros, both Podemos and Sumar (this as a minority party in the Council of Ministers coalition) criticized the measure. This Wednesday, Sánchez Serna accused the Government of approving it as an extraordinary expense and not through a budget debate “to steal again the possibility of a debate and a vote”. “Every euro that is invested in ammunition is a euro that is not invested in public health, education, dependency, social aid or feminist policies,” she said from the podium.
The PP has also expressed itself on this, demanding the immediate resignation of the second vice president, Yolanda Diaz, or the Minister of Defense due to the existing disagreement in the coalition Government on investment in Defense. Thus, the deputy secretary of Institutional Affairs of the PP, Esteban González Pons, has taken advantage of his question to Robles to ask for the resignation of one of the twoemphasizing that the duty of secrecy of the deliberations of the Council of Ministers may be breached.
