The Socialist prime minister has slammed the conflict as unjustified and illegal, and now his criticism has sparked the threat of a trade war from the U.S. president.
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.
I’d feel more enthusiastic about him pushing back if he hadn’t fucking balked at the concept of the EU being more self reliant in defense matters months ago. Don’t get me wrong, it’s very good that he’s criticizing orangeboi and the regime, but in light of the aforementioned bullshit, it smacks a bit of political grandstanding and opportunism to me.