{"id":461401,"date":"2026-03-06T21:17:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T21:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/461401\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T21:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T21:17:08","slug":"a-lone-battle-why-is-pedro-sanchez-the-only-european-leader-to-take-on-trump-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/461401\/","title":{"rendered":"A lone battle: Why is Pedro S\u00e1nchez the only European leader to take on Trump? | Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday morning, Pedro S\u00e1nchez<\/a> delivered a 10-minute televised address with the rather bland title: \u201cAn institutional declaration by the prime minister to assess recent international events.\u201d<\/p>\n

The speech\u2019s words, however, were anything but beige. Hours after Donald Trump had threatened to cut off trade with Spain<\/a> over its government\u2019s refusal to allow two jointly operated bases in Andaluc\u00eda to be used to strike Iran, S\u00e1nchez set out his thinking.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The thrust of the Spanish prime minister\u2019s argument was that another war in the Middle East would claim numerous lives, further destabilise the world and have dire economic consequences \u2013 but many of its paragraphs were unambiguously personal.<\/p>\n

A government\u2019s overriding duty, said S\u00e1nchez, was to protect and improve the lives of its citizens, not to manipulate or profit from global conflicts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is absolutely unacceptable that those leaders who are incapable of fulfilling this duty use the smokescreen of war to hide their failure and, in the process, line the pockets of a select few \u2013 the same ones as always; the only ones who profit when the world stops building hospitals and starts building missiles,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Then came the lines: \u201cIt is naive to believe that democracies or respect between nations can spring from ruins. Or to think that practising blind and servile obedience is a form of leadership \u2026 We will not be complicit in something that is bad for the world and that is also contrary to our values \u200b\u200band interests, simply out of fear of reprisals from someone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Who \u201csomeone\u201d was needed no explanation.<\/p>\n

Even if S\u00e1nchez was preaching to the converted in his speech \u2013 according to a recent survey, only 15.7% of Spaniards have a favourable opinion of the US president<\/a> \u2013 his words would still have resonated with the many who were infuriated by the country\u2019s support for the 2003 invasion of Iraq<\/a> under its then prime minister, Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Aznar.<\/p>\n

Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Aznar (right) with George Bush in 2003. Photograph: Sergio P\u00e9rez\/Reuters<\/p>\n

While Wednesday\u2019s address thrilled S\u00e1nchez\u2019s leftwing base, it elicited a predictable response from his political opponents. Alberto N\u00fa\u00f1ez Feij\u00f3o, the leader of the conservative People\u2019s party, accused the prime minister of playing partisan politics and jeopardising Spain\u2019s relationship with the US. Santiago Abascal, who leads the far-right, pro-Trump Vox party, suggested the decision had been taken by the \u201cayatollahs\u201d and by a prime minister hellbent on remaining in power, despite a series of corruption scandals<\/a> facing his inner circle, his socialist party and his administration.<\/p>\n

But S\u00e1nchez\u2019s language, though stark, was hardly out of character<\/a>. As well as being one of the most vociferous European critics of Israel\u2019s conduct in Gaza \u2013 he has accused the country of \u201cexterminating a defenceless people\u201d<\/a> by bombing hospitals and \u201ckilling innocent boys and girls with hunger\u201d \u2013 he spoke out against the US\u2019s armed toppling of Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a> in Venezuela.<\/p>\n

He has also bucked global trends by defending and promoting the benefits of immigration<\/a> at a time when most politicians across the continent prefer radical rhetoric and razor wire.<\/p>\n

His is an increasingly loud voice, but, for the time being at least, a solitary one. While Denmark\u2019s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, has won plaudits and boosted her profile by rallying European leaders against Donald Trump\u2019s attempt to claim Greenland<\/a>, S\u00e1nchez has not found full-throated support in Europe\u2019s major capitals.<\/p>\n

Mette Frederiksen rallied European leaders against Donald Trump\u2019s attempt to claim Greenland. Photograph: Ida Marie Odgaard\/AP<\/p>\n

For reasons that are sometimes domestic, sometimes global, sometimes ideological and sometimes practical, his counterparts in Berlin, Paris and Rome have found themselves unwilling or unable to speak out against Trump.<\/p>\n

The French president, Emmanuel Macron<\/a>, contacted S\u00e1nchez on Wednesday to express France\u2019s \u201cEuropean solidarity\u201d in the face of the US\u2019s trade threats.<\/p>\n

Macron, who has only one year left in office and is focusing almost entirely on foreign policy, now faces the challenge of trying to de-escalate another international conflict that appears far out of France\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n

Macron (left) and S\u00e1nchez in March 2025. Paris is now walking a tightrope of pragmatism. Photograph: Tom Nicholson\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Paris, which staunchly opposed the US-led 2003 war in Iraq under the then vociferously dissenting president Jacques Chirac, is now walking a tightrope of pragmatism.<\/p>\n

Macron has been clear in saying that the US and Israeli attacks on Iran did not observe international law.<\/p>\n

But he has also said that the Iranian leadership bore responsibility by disregarding international law with its nuclear programme, financing terrorist groups and with its human rights abuses. In a televised address on Tuesday, Macron said of the killings of Iran\u2019s supreme leader and top officials: \u201cHistory never weeps for the executioners of their own people, and none of them will be mourned.\u201d<\/p>\n

France, under the dissenting president Jacques Chirac, staunchly opposed the war in Iraq. Photograph: Patrick Kovarik\/AP<\/p>\n

France has moved its aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, to the eastern Mediterranean, as well as other anti-air defence capabilities, for what Macron called a \u201cstrictly defensive\u201d presence in support of its regional allies, including Cyprus, but also Qatar, Kuwait and the UAE, where France has a sizeable military base.<\/p>\n

One of France\u2019s top priorities was \u201cworking to find a way out of this crisis,\u201d a French official said.<\/p>\n

It is from Germany\u2019s chancellor, Friedrich Merz<\/a>, however, that Europe has seen rhetoric most sharply differing from S\u00e1nchez\u2019s. On Sunday, as he prepared to head to Washington, Merz struck a remarkably conciliatory note in a statement for the cameras at his chancellery in Berlin.<\/p>\n

\u201cCategorising the events [in Iran] under international law will have relatively little effect,\u201d Merz stated. \u201cTherefore, this is not the time to lecture our partners and allies. Despite our reservations, we share many of their goals without being able to actually achieve them ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Merz\u2019s stated strategy at the long-planned Oval Office meeting on Tuesday was \u2013 taking a page from the Canadian prime minister Mark Carney<\/a> \u2013 to use pragmatism to allow the greatest room for manoeuvre on Europe\u2019s most pressing concerns: Ukraine and the president\u2019s chaotic tariffs.<\/p>\n

The unpopular chancellor, who is trying to fight off a stiff challenge from the far-right Alternative f\u00fcr Deutschland party before five state elections this year while also struggling to revive Europe\u2019s top economy, can ill-afford a frontal collision with Trump.<\/p>\n

The unpopular German chancellor (left) can ill-afford a frontal collision with Trump. Photograph: Win McNamee\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

So when, on Tuesday, shortly after the US president had announced his plans to stop trading with Spain, a reporter offered him an opportunity to defend Spain, Merz instead threw his support behind Trump\u2019s renewed attack on Madrid for refusing to accept Nato\u2019s proposal for member states to increase their defence spending to 5%<\/a> of their GDP.<\/p>\n

Merz later told German journalists<\/a> that he had not wanted to contradict Trump \u201con the open stage\u201d but that in private talks he had stood up for Spain and the UK (whose prime minister, Keir Starmer, had been derided by Trump in the Oval Office as \u201cno Winston Churchill<\/a>\u201d and who was forced this week to insist the \u201cspecial relationship\u201d between the US and UK was still alive).<\/p>\n

But by then, the diplomatic damage was done, allowing Trump a win in his persistent efforts to drive a wedge between European allies.<\/p>\n

Commentators back home said that while Merz had earned praise last June for pushing back on some of Trump\u2019s more outrageous statements<\/a> regarding Ukraine and the second world war, the chancellor\u2019s reticence this time was \u201cshameful\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If S\u00e1nchez was casting around for support in his stance on the Iran war, he won\u2019t have been looking to Rome. Italy\u2019s position appears deliberately ambiguous. The prime minister, Giorgia Meloni<\/a>, has tried to keep one foot in Trump\u2019s camp \u2013 often boasting of her personal and political affinity with him \u2013 and the other in Europe.<\/p>\n

This balancing act has become a defining feature of Meloni\u2019s foreign policy. As with Trump\u2019s tariff wars and the war in Gaza, Meloni has been careful not to openly break with Washington, yet equally reluctant to commit Italy<\/a> to a clearly independent line.<\/p>\n

Trump and Meloni during a Gaza summit in October. Photograph: Evan Vucci\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not at war and we do not intend to enter one,\u201d Meloni told the Italian radio station RTL 102.5 on Wednesday. \u201cThe situation is worrying, I would say on several fronts. I am concerned about an increasingly evident crisis of international law. The world is increasingly governed by chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Thursday, however, the defence minister, Guido Crosetto, took a more forthright line, telling the lower house of parliament that the decision to launch the strikes against Iran \u201cof course fell outside, needless to say, the rules of international law\u201d.<\/p>\n

Crosetto added: \u201cIt is a war that was started without anyone in the world knowing. One in which we, like the rest of the world, find ourselves having to manage [the consequences].\u201d<\/p>\n

Italy\u2019s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, said Rome had not yet received any US requests to use military bases on Italian soil for operations against Iran, and would evaluate any requests if they were to arrive.<\/p>\n

\u200bI\u200bn the meantime, Spain\u2019s lonely duel with Washington \u200brumbles on \u2013 especially after the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, claimed on Wednesday that Madrid had changed its mind and was now happy to cooperate with the offensive.<\/p>\n

The suggestion was quickly, and bluntly, dismissed by Spain\u2019s foreign minister, Jos\u00e9 Manuel Albares. \u201cOur \u2018no to war\u2019 stance remains clear and unequivocal,\u201d he said. \u201c[Leavitt] may be the White House press secretary, but I\u2019m the foreign minister of Spain and I\u2019m telling her that our position hasn\u2019t changed at all.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Wednesday morning, Pedro S\u00e1nchez delivered a 10-minute televised address with the rather bland title: \u201cAn institutional declaration…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-461401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}