I don't know if people understand just how insanely egregious this is.
First of all, 1) not only are NATO spending targets NOT legally binding (nothing in any NATO-related legal text mandates a specific GDP-based threshold for defense spending), but on top of this 2) Spain requested AND RECEIVED an exemption from the 5% target at the 2025 Hague Summit - NATO changed the declaration's language specifically to allow Spain to sign while publicly declaring it would not comply (https://t.co/q3VE2Je3TS)
This means that, legally speaking and according to NATO's own rules, Spain is doubly within its rights: there is no binding obligation to begin with, and Spain was excused from even this non-binding obligation.
That's the first point: Germany's chancellor just endorsed - from the Oval Office - the U.S. punishing a fellow EU nation for refusing to comply with an obligation that doesn't exist in law, under a political pledge Spain was excused from at a NATO summit.
The second point is that this 5% target has nothing to do with "defense", quite the contrary in fact: it is pretty explicitly an imperial tribute to the U.S. that will actually **weaken** European defense.
That was Spain's main argument for refusing to comply: Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said that "committing to 5% would not make us any safer" because it "would only reinforce our dependence" on the U.S. (https://t.co/QUMDyfvWDP)
That's the insane thing about EU defense spending: in recent years, the more it has spent on defense, the more that spending has flowed to American contractors as opposed to European ones, making the EU defense industry weaker (https://t.co/XHGLW71tX0). Increasing spending to 5% doesn't strengthen European defense: it accelerates exactly this transfer.
All the more insane given the well-documented production backlogs in the U.S. defense industry and its inability to produce at scale: US defense analysts - including from Trump-adjacent think tanks like AEI (https://t.co/c3DobMYpru) - openly acknowledge that European customers would be deprioritized behind U.S. ones in any real conflict.
AND, critically, a defense industry from a country that's increasingly hostile to Europe - explicitly so in its National Security Strategy - and whose weaponry has "kill switches" that allows for remote disabling.
I mean, the sheer madness of it: anyone with an ounce of common sense can see that DOUBLING your defense spending to enrich a foreign arms industry that has kill switches on your weapons, can't meet its own military's needs, and increasingly treats you as an adversary, is not even remotely a defense strategy - it's suicide.
That's why having Merz - in the oval office, sitting next to Trump - endorse economic coercion against the one EU country that's still sane enough to see through this madness is so egregious, and frankly straight-up traitorous.
For those who know Asterix and Obelix, Spain is the "one small village still holding out against the invaders" and Merz is Cassius Ceramix, the self-described "gallo-roman" Gaul village chief who's the incarnation of all sycophants after his tribe were conquered by the Romans.
I'm with Asterix, and all Europeans should be too.
Hi ha una estupidesa molt extesa entre gent que es pensa que ésun directiu eficient i resolutiu. És aquella frase ximple que diu: no em portis problemes, porta’m solucions. Però si avui, més que mai, la solució depèn de la definició del problema!
Convertir l'extinció en un negoci fa que les empreses tinguin incentius en no fer la feina. @juanrallo mou la porteria parlant de IRPF i despesa pública quan el tema és veure què passa amb els serveis quan manen privatitzadors. El mercat apaga millor incendis?
@VIAEmpresa@ganyet Molt bona ressenya. Un parell de notes:
- si hem controlat les armes nuclears ho farem amb la IA
- abans més dades volia dir menys eficiència i amb la IA és al contrari
Ara toca llegir-lo (en català)
Accident #CalaBona, com a metàfora
Com a mallorquí intentes ocupar el teu petit espai, humilment, complidor, fidel al que ets, i en això arriba gent de fóra, potent econòmicament, irresponsable, a qui no li importa en absolut el lloc on és, i literalment t'atropella #EPDGuillem
@javr_sanchez@PoliticaProsa Un article molt interessant per si sol, però encara més pels que estàvem més o menys ficats en el moviment federalista en aquella època
@TomasMolinaB@gencat Teniu dades que no sabem els ciutadans? Us preneu seriosament el canvi climàtic? Perdreu vots per aquesta mesura més que no pas guanyar-ne
Los casos de sarampión en Europa aumentaron casi 45 veces durante el 2023 según la OMS. Unas 42.200 personas se infectaron en 2023, frente a 941 en 2022. La falta de vacunación de menores como responsable. Autoridades piden "medidas urgentes" para evitar una mayor propagación.