As the Spanish PM decries the war in Iran, other politicians are unable – or unwilling – to speak against the US president
On Wednesday morning, Pedro Sánchez delivered a 10-minute televised address with the rather bland title: “An institutional declaration by the prime minister to assess recent international events.”
The speech’s words, however, were anything but beige. Hours after Donald Trump had threatened to cut off trade with Spain over its government’s refusal to allow two jointly operated bases in Andalucía to be used to strike Iran, Sánchez set out his thinking.
In doing so, he became one of the very few European leaders to openly and emphatically reject the demands of a US president whose trademark negotiating style is an erratic mix of bullying, humiliation and self-aggrandisement.
The thrust of the Spanish prime minister’s argument was that another war in the Middle East would claim numerous lives, further destabilise the world and have dire economic consequences – but many of its paragraphs were unambiguously personal.
