NATO exposes Sánchez's lie: Spain's supposed exception does not exist

Pedro Sánchez's tendency to lie and deceive is well known in Spain, but today it has been made evident abroad.

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NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte held a press conference this afternoon. The first question from the media came from a Spanish journalist, Lluís Tovar, Telecinco's Brussels correspondent, who asked him about the exception announced yesterday by Sánchez, assuring that NATO would allow Spain to invest 2.1% in defense and not 5% of GDP. An exception that many media outlets announced without questioning it, despite the already low credibility of the socialist leader and even after Sánchez published a letter from Rutte denying that claim.

The official transcript of the press conference can be read here (it does not include answers to journalists). The video of the press conference can be seen here. The aforementioned question from the Spanish journalist can be heard at 11:18. You can watch that moment in the following video player; I have embedded it to start at that point:

In his response, Mark Rutte was very clear:

Spain thinks they can achieve those targets on a percentage of 2.1%. NATO is absolutely convinced Spain will have to spend 3.5% together, so each country will now regularly report on what they are doing in terms of spending and reaching the targets. We will see and anyway will be a review in 2029.

This does not mean that Spain will be able to spend 3.5% of GDP and not 5% of GDP. This is the 3.5% + 1.5% formula announced by Rutte on June 5:

I will propose an overall investment plan that would total 5% of GDP in defence investment.
3.5% of GDP for core defence spending.
This is based on what it will cost to meet the new capability targets that Ministers have just agreed.
And 1.5% of GDP per year in defence- and security-related investment like infrastructure and industry.

At 18:50 in the video, another journalist can be heard asking about the alleged Spanish exception. Mark Rutte once again denied Sánchez's claim:

Let me first on particular alluding to Spain. NATO has no ops outs and NATO doesn't know site deals or side deals. So that's on on the particular question you ask about about Spain. What all allies will do is that, of course, they have the sovereign right and also the flexibility to determine their pass for delivering on the NATO commitments. That means how much they will spend annually. And this is exactly what we are doing.

What Rutte explains is precisely what I indicated here this morning. You only had to read his letter yesterday to understand it. However, either Sánchez doesn't understand English, or he simply invented an agreement that didn't exist.

In any case, today NATO has made Sánchez look like a liar, something that not only damages his personal image, but also that of the country he represents in these international forums. I wonder if we realize how serious this is and how much Sánchez's lack of scruples could harm Spain abroad.

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Image: NATO News.