It is troublesome for me to affix the technique that the Spanish excessive left, with President Sánchez on the helm, has begun by recovering, as a caricature, the no to conflict and the confrontation with Donald Trump as inside electoral posturing (Sánchez retains up with Trump). And even much less so, when the Government makes it appropriate with sending our greatest frigate to the world the following day, and Giorgia Meloni, taking the flag from Sánchez, joins the the demonstration declaring that she joins the no to the conflict. But neither can I settle for the submission of our nationwide far-right “patriots” to the imperialist follies of Trump, dragged into this journey by Netanyahu, nor Feijóo’s straightforward manner out that we’ve got to be on the facet of liberal democracies as a result of, truthfully, I’ve critical doubts that these United States of Trump, usurping powers, and this Israel with a frontrunner pending trial for corruption and wished by the International Criminal Court, are, nor do they need to be, liberal democracies that, amongst different issues, respect the norms and the home regulation, worldwide regulation and even the human rights that Feijóo referred to, as a substitute of violating them in Gaza or with immigrants.
The assault on Iran by the USA and Israel has represented, with respect to Spain, a brand new motive for PP-PSOE confrontation; the second of brilliance earlier than the left-extreme left that Sánchez was ready for, prolonging this agonizing legislature and, as soon as once more, the isolation of Spain, which makes these choices with out consulting them with its European companions. And, relating to the European Union, three essential points: its irrelevance (nobody warned them); its institutional blockade (it couldn’t even approve a joint assertion); its rising inside division (France and Germany have gone, along with the United Kingdom, on their very own).
Although workouts have been carried out on the speculation of a minimize in financial and business relations between Spain and the USA, as Trump threatened earlier than we despatched the frigate, since nobody took it critically, I might not wish to dedicate extra time to it than it deserves. Another factor is the fast financial affect of the battle, which has been as anticipated: fall within the inventory markets as a result of uncertainty; rise within the value of oil and fuel, which, given its affect on the electrical energy market, will trigger charge will increase and, if it continues, inflation.
A brand new alternative, by the way in which, to as soon as once more declare power autonomy and assume to what extent, on this turbulent world, we must always not take critically decreasing Spain’s extreme exterior dependence on fuel from three suppliers: Algeria, the United States and Russia (sure, nonetheless Russia, regardless of Ukraine and the boycott). This component of the equation makes it inconceivable, for instance, for the Nuclear Safety Council and the Government itself to not take it under consideration when agreeing on the important extension of the helpful lifetime of our nuclear energy crops.
Spain can not search its salvation exterior the European framework, although the world on which the European Union was constructed now not exists. Furthermore, Trump resents the EU. He has repeated that it was created to hurt the United States, in a kind of many lies that he makes with the only goal of making, earlier than his personal individuals, the suitable psychological framework to justify his actions, resembling, for instance, imposing tariffs. He reveals his animosity in the direction of the EU via successive diplomatic insults and affronts, and consolidates it within the National Security Strategy, the place he defines it as a burden, demanding that it assume its safety duties with out entrusting every part to the USA even within the midst of the battle with Russia over Ukraine, and the place it reserves the appropriate to intervene within the inside politics of its States to assist these far-right forces that search, like him, to place an finish to the present EU.
The presentation in 2024 of the Letta (April) and Draghi (September) studies outlined an important roadmap to make sure, via better European integration, the aims set by each the Commission and the Council in step with strategic autonomy. Things couldn’t proceed as earlier than as a result of the European Union, just like the king of the fable, was bare, and everybody realized this, though not everybody reacted accordingly and, initially, the European Union itself, unable to maneuver within the course set, with the velocity required by the brand new world order that emerged with Trump, the place the regulation of the strongest prevails, and the earlier positive-sum cooperation (everybody wins), has change into the present typical confrontation of zero-sum video games (one solely wins what another person loses), and the place the hazard of the present European weak point is obvious, as a result of a world the place the ability of the robust reigns signifies that it’s on the weakest, sooner fairly than later, that predators repair their eyes.
To escape the function of sufferer, the present European Union isn’t probably the most applicable institutional framework. I agree with former commissioner Joaquín Almunia when he says in a current interview that, in some strategic issues, we should go for bolstered cooperation and, in different instances, for coalitions of volunteers that have to be applied via pragmatism with out having to get into the everlasting technique of modifying the treaties. The present EU has sufficient to advertise the interior market and full the capital market from which financing for investments in know-how should come, which at present is diverted to the American market.
If Europe needs to make its personal choices, defend democracy and purchase adequate army power to take care of the above, it should hurry to undertake the choices it is aware of it should make and settle for an EU of variable geometry. If not, as a sufferer, somebody, in some unspecified time in the future, will determine to assault us on this loopy new world. And, then, no to conflict shall be suicidal.
https://cincodias.elpais.com/opinion/2026-03-09/todo-lo-solido-se-desvanece-ante-los-misiles.html