The storm for the defense policy stir to the coalition but add guarantees its continuity | Spain

Without a single truce day, the coalition lived on Wednesday a new turbulent day. Sumar expressed on Tuesday in the Council of Ministers its discrepancies with the Government Security Plan for raising military spending, differences assumed and largely agreed between partners, but the decision of the Ministry of Interior to disdain and continue with the Purchase of 15 million bullets from Israel He left the expected script, with an award also that it was made public on Good Friday, in the middle of Holy Week. The department led by Fernando Grande-Marlaska had pledged to annul the contract on October 24 due to Gaza’s War and his rectification again stirred to the Executive’s minority partner, causing an unprecedented crisis, although adding guarantees its permanence in the coalition.

The group of vice president Yolanda Díaz issued a hard statement demanding the interior rectification and a United Left spokesman arrived at Open the door at your exit from the Council of Ministersa possibility that was later nuanced both from his party and from the surroundings of the vice president. « At no time is the table or at risk or the participation of adding in the government or the continuity of the coalition government, » said the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, in the afternoon.

In the first hour, Díaz had tried to normalize the differences due to the increase in military spending confirming that the coalition enjoyed “very good health” and would deplete the legislature. Sources from the government’s socialist sector understand the discomfort of its partners for this matter, but they are shielded in the communication of the State Advocacy that advised the termination due to the advanced phase of processing the contract with the Israeli company. The cancellation, they explain, would have meant paying the price to the company without receiving the contracted material. The minority partner denies legal limitations and argues that everything is a matter of political will. In any case, La Moncloa tried yesterday to relativize the depth of the crisis and wait at the return of Fernando Grande-Marlaska, traveling this Wednesday in Iraq, to ​​address the matter.

The discomfort between the adding matches became evident throughout the morning and its spokespersons were hardesting the tone, with a resignation request included from Compromís and IU of the person in charge of the interior if it did not accept the requirement of the group to cancel the contract with Israel, valued at 6.6 million euros. « It is a flagrant violation of the agreements and, therefore, we demand the immediate rectification of that contract and the minister’s appearance to explain what has happened, » said the vice president shortly after knowing that the department of Marlaska had decided to move forward with the purchase.

« The suspension of arms trade with Israel is not only a fair measure in the context of the genocide that the Palestinian people are suffering, but also in line with the international treaties on arms trade, » says the public note of those of Díaz, which stresses that « there are no nuances in the middle of a massacre whose responsible have an international arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court. » Since the open war in October 2023, Sumar has made this matter one of its flags and battled with the PSOE to include in the government agreement the recognition of Palestine as a state, something that finally finally approved the Council of Ministers in May last year.

The crisis raised it to the maximum United Left, the most sensitive formation on this issue, and that had already been Show very angry with the investment of almost 10,500 million of euros in defense announced one day before and with which Spain will fulfill this year the commitment that Mariano Rajoy acquired in 2014 with NATO to allocate 2% of GDP to this matter. To add up to its group to very different political tradition and IU parties, which was born in 1986 in the heat of mobilizations against the ratification of Spain’s entry into the Atlantic Alliance and has historically maintained a defense position of the Palestinian State, has also been the most belligerent also this Wednesday. « We are not going to tolerate any departure (from the Executive) to finance a genocidal state, » warned its federal coordinator, Antonio Maíllo. « It is not enough to ask for explanations. That path we are not going to travel. The PSOE has opened the greatest crisis since we have a government in 2023 », added in a especially hard tone. One step further was in this case its parliamentary spokesman, Enrique Santiago, who asked about a possible exit from the cabinet replied: « We are facing a serious contradiction. On the one hand, we want Spain to remain the only government of progressive coalition. It is the best protection shield in our country. If in the end you have to make a decision not to continue participating in the government, we will try that in Spain there is not a right -wing executive, ”he said at a press conference. A high position of IU discard To lower the crisis, avoided explicitly rejecting abandonment, added that « (all) the scenarios are on the table », and said that « the focus was to be put to leave or not » of the Executive.

The defense policy and particularly the increases in military spending have traditionally divided to government partners since 2020, first to PSOE and Unidas Podemos and now to the Socialists and add. The coalition coordinated turn in Europe After the arrival of Donald Trump to the White House. This is what they have baptized in the coalition as « agreed discrepancy », and therefore Sumar presented « formal observations » in the Council of Ministers, stating their rejection. However, the news about the change of interior opinion on weapons contracts to Israel was a surprise for the minority group, which learned by the media. The Minister Sira Rego, of Palestinian origin and the Maíllo party, sent at noon a letter to Marlaska himself asking for rectification and an audit that « sheds light » on any other type of agreement with Israel in this area. « Buying weapons tested in combat against the Palestinian civilian population clashes frontally with the position that Spain has been maintaining internationally, as well as the majority feeling of the population, » he adds in the letter.

In the Moncloa and in Ferraz they do not give any likelihood to a sudden rupture of the coalition. What there is is concern about the image of division and instability that the Executive transmits. « They are fireworks, not anywhere. All this responds to the moment of redefinition of that world and the competition between adding and we can, » thinks a minister. The fracture in all that space that was presented together in the 2023 general elections under the acronym of adding is the great headache of the Socialists. Díaz’s coalition must deal with the pressure of Podemos, which from the mixed group of the Congress accuses them of being part of a government that qualifies as an executive « of the war » or « collaborationist of a genocide », in the words on Wednesday of its general secretary, Ione Belarra. A heavyweight of the government reduces the crisis and shows some understanding « with an unchecking with which they seek to justify themselves before their militants » and emphasize that the controversy is reduced to « a very specific issue of a very specific contract. »

The PSOE wants to pass as soon as possible while trying to destroy the last crisis in the Executive, as it was evident in the public interventions of its ministers. « We are a coalition government and logically there are issues in which we express common positions in tune and add has transferred that there is some disagreement in any of the issues, but in practically 99% of this plan the parties that we form the government of Spain agree, » said Pilar Alegría.