Only one EU leader has dared to directly challenge U.S. President Donald Trump over the war against Iran, calling it unjustified, dangerous and illegal: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
And Trump has certainly noticed his outspoken critic in Madrid. On Tuesday, he slammed the Spanish government as “terrible” and “unfriendly” over its decision to bar U.S. military planes from using Spanish air bases to attack Iran, before threatening to cut all trade with the EU’s fourth-biggest economy.
Sánchez’s showdown with Trump puts the Spanish Socialist in a similar position to former French President Jacques Chirac, who famously emerged as the most defiant European leader in 2003, appealing to international law and multilateralism in an attempt to corral opposition to the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
It’s easy to see why Sánchez is so ready to step up on the global stage and take on Trump. In Madrid, he has little room for political maneuver, with his party pummeled by corruption scandals and defeats in regional elections. But he can act far more freely on foreign affairs to cast himself as a bulwark against Trumpism — something that plays well with the Spanish public.
His criticism of the war is far from his first broadside against U.S. and Israeli military action — he has also been highly critical about the war in Gaza and the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro — but the severity of his condemnation has put him conspicuously at odds with other EU leaders, who have been much more equivocal.
Sánchez has called the attack on Iran a “violation of international law” and an “unjustified and dangerous military intervention.”
Just like Chirac in 2003, Sánchez is not just sounding off from the sidelines but is also making a broader appeal for countries to stand up to the U.S. and Israel. According to a diplomat granted anonymity to discuss the emergency meeting of EU foreign ministers of Sunday, Spain pushed for the bloc to call out the U.S. for violating international law, and criticized Brussels’ double standards in its application of the U.N. charter.
After the meeting, Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares insisted the EU’s role in the crisis had to be in favor “de-escalation, a return to dialogue, détente, diplomacy, and negotiation.”
Sánchez himself blasted the U.S. and Israel for attacking Iran “unilaterally, without consulting the international community.” He condemned the offensive for “causing hundreds of innocent victims, and plunging an entire region into terror that will bring much more global instability.”
Immediate consequences
Madrid this weekend underscored its legal objections to the war by blocking the U.S. from using jointly-operated bases to attack Iran.
Defense Minister Margarita Robles on Monday explained American troops stationed at Spain’s Morón de la Frontera and Rota airbase must “operate within the framework of international law,” and that the installations would be prohibited from “providing support except if it is necessary from a humanitarian perspective.”
Robles said the bases had not participated in last Saturday’s attack on Iran and would not be used for “maintenance and support operations.”
According to flight-tracking website FlightRadar24, more than a dozen U.S. aircraft — among them, several Boeing KC-135 aerial refueling tankers — left the Morón and Rota bases this weekend, with seven deploying to Rammstein Airforce Base in Germany. Robles said the U.S. had “likely made those moves because they knew the aircraft could not operate” from Spain.
Madrid’s airbase restrictions triggered Trump’s trade threat on Tuesday. “We’re going to cut off all trade with Spain,” the U.S. president said during a press conference in the White House with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. “We don’t want anything to do with Spain.”
Trump added the U.S. didn’t need Spain’s permission to use the bases on its soil. “We can use their bases if we want, we can just fly in and use them,” he said. “No one’s going to tell us not to use them.”
Trump added that last month’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling limiting his administration’s ability to impose sweeping tariffs would not deter him from taking action against Madrid.
“I could tomorrow — or today, even better — stop everything having to do with Spain. All business having to do with Spain. I have the right to stop it. Embargoes … do anything I want with it. And we may do that with Spain.”
Political points
The prime minister’s stand on the war plays well in a country where Trump is widely disliked. According to a recent poll carried out by the state-run Center for Sociological Research, three-quarters of all Spaniards admitted to having a “very bad” opinion of Trump, and 8 out of 10 considered him to pose a threat to world peace.
It also goes down well within the Spanish coalition government, which includes the fiercely anti-MAGA, far-left Sumar party.
Still, the prime minister’s allies insist his policies are not based on political calculations and are not an explicit campaign against Trump, but rather a reflection of his political principles.
POLITICO spoke to Spain’s Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo before Trump made his trade threat and asked whether Madrid had weighed up the potential of economic retaliation from the U.S. before speaking out.
“Spain does that which it considers is correct and in line with humanitarian and international law,” Cuerpo replied.
Sánchez has taken pains to stress that his government’s criticism of the U.S. attack on Iran is not an endorsement of Tehran’s Islamist regime, which he labeled as “hateful.”
“One must oppose a war without authorization from the U.N. Security Council and the U.S. Congress,” he said on Sunday.
On the ropes
Pablo Simón, a political scientist at Madrid’s Carlos III University, noted that Sánchez’s international showdown over the legality of Trump’s war could help him rebuild some political capital before national elections that must be held by July next year.
“Sánchez is opting for this quixotic effort that involves tilting at windmills and positioning himself as a beacon of multilateralism and Europeanism at a time when his popularity is at a low point,” Simón said.
“It remains to be seen if the voters will buy it,” he added.
Trump’s view of Sánchez on Tuesday night was withering. “[Spain has] wonderful people,” he said. “They don’t have great leadership.
Nicholas Vinocur contributed reporting.