Far from Russia’s aggression, Spaniards are reluctant to spend big on security

María del Carmen Abascal, who says the Spanish government should focus more on social spending than on the military, in Madrid, July 9, 2025. Spain was the only NATO ally not to commit to a large increase in military expenditures and Its embrace of a social safety net is a key reason. (Gianfranco Tripodo/The New York Times)

By Lara Jakes and José Bautista

María del Carmen Abascal was already frustrated over the lack of affordable housing in Spain, where rising rent could force her out of the apartment in Madrid she has lived in for 69 years.

Then she heard about the government’s plans to increase military spending this year by more than $12 billion. And if NATO had its way, it would be a lot more.

“They should put that money into social spending, in housing, in everything that people in Spain need,” Abascal said, her lips pursed indignantly during a recent interview in one of the last working-class neighborhoods in central Madrid, where housing prices are skyrocketing.

Perhaps nowhere in Europe has the tug-of-war between spending more for domestic priorities or for defense so vexed a government than in Spain.

Torn between a looming Russian threat to Europe and housing, health care and education needs, Spain has tried to split the difference. It was the only country in the alliance that openly refused to agree last month to spend up to 5% of its gross domestic product over the next decade on defense, as President Donald Trump demands.

The drastic spending increase, which the rest of NATO’s 32 member countries committed to, would ease Europe’s dependence on the United States for security. But for Spain, it would mean nearly doubling its annual defense budget to an estimated $73.8 billion, draining funding for social programs.

Already, Abascal said her monthly pension cannot cover her rent, which more than quadrupled when an international investment bank bought her apartment building years ago. Most of her longtime neighbors moved out, unable to afford homes now largely marketed to wealthy expats or tourists.

“We will have to leave our houses if we have to go with the defense spending up to 5%,” said Abascal, 86. “We all will be lost.”

Spain has long been leery of building up its military, still haunted by the decades-long military dictatorship of Francisco Franco that ended with his death in 1975. It has the lowest military spending of any NATO nation, according to the most recent data available.

And the war in Ukraine feels like a continent away. It holds little everyday concern on the streets of Madrid, though Spain deployed troops to help protect NATO’s eastern flank after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

But Trump’s demands, coupled with widespread European concerns about Russia, prompted Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to seek a balance.

Under his plan, Spain will increase spending on defense to 2.1% of its national income, “no more, no less,” Sánchez said before meeting other NATO leaders last month. Trump responded by threatening to punish Spain through U.S. trade deals, although he gave no details.

Spain’s pledge amounts to about $38.9 billion in 2025, and is only slightly more than what NATO allies had each agreed to invest annually more than a decade ago.

Still, it is about $12.2 billion more than what Spain spent on defense last year — an increase that has frustrated members of Sánchez’s leftist coalition government, who want more money for public services.

“Our presence in the government is to develop a social agenda,” said Sira Rego, a left-wing politician and Spain’s minister for youth and children. “It would be a contradiction if we have to choose between that and increasing defense spending, following Trump decisions.”

Rego serves in Sánchez’s Cabinet but not in his Socialist Workers’ Party, and she opposed the increase in defense spending. Raising it to 5%, she said, is unthinkable “if we want to save our welfare state.”

“That means that hospitals will be closed, schools will be closed, key support programs will disappear,” Rego said. “It means that the future of a generation, or several generations, will be at risk, because we produce more weapons.”

Sánchez cannot afford to lose much support within his fragile governing coalition. Already, his political legitimacy is challenged by a corruption scandal involving aides, which Spain’s conservative opposition is eager to exploit.

Through his office, Sánchez declined to be interviewed.

Trump is broadly disliked in Spain, a recent survey by the European Council on Foreign Relations found. That makes it easier for Sánchez to buck the U.S. president.

However, NATO unity has a role in Spain’s security.

For generations, Spain and Morocco have clashed over the territorial rights of two small coastal cities in North Africa, Ceuta and Melilla. Morocco has long demanded custody and called Spain’s claim to the cities a vestige of colonialism. Spain has refused, saying they were part of it for centuries.

The European Union recognizes Spain’s sovereignty over the cities and sees them as part of EU territory. Though the dispute shows no sign of boiling over, officials said NATO could be compelled to protect Ceuta and Melilla, if ever necessary, because the military alliance has pledged to defend “every inch” of its members’ territories.

Some Spanish officials worry Trump would side with Morocco in any quarrel between the countries because it was part of a deal he struck during his first term to normalize relations between Arab-majority nations and Israel.

“With Ceuta and Melilla, if anything happens to them, there will be an open forum to discuss what to do for their defense — in military terms, in political terms,” said Sen. Fernando Adolfo Gutiérrez Díaz de Otazu, a retired general and conservative politician who leads Spain’s delegation to NATO’s parliamentary assembly. “That’s what NATO is about.”

As Spain debates security spending, its defense industry has grown.

Industry revenues totaled about $8.6 billion in 2023, the latest data available, a nearly 9% increase from the year before, according to the Spanish Association of Defense, Security, Aeronautics and Space Technology Companies. Combat vehicles, military transport jets, radar, and anti-tank systems are among the Spanish products most in demand.

More than 22,000 people work for Spanish defense producers, and the additional $12.2 billion in military spending Sánchez proposed is expected to create more jobs. About one-third of the increase will fund technology, including cybersecurity and satellites.

“It’s going to give us a lot of work,” said Ángel Escribano, the president of Indra Group, the Spanish defense and technology giant.

Current and former government officials would not discuss whether spending 2.1% of GDP would be enough for Spain to meet NATO military capability targets.

Either way, military spending is certain to increase, diverting money from social welfare programs, said Julio Rodríguez, Spain’s former chief of defense. He is now a member of a left-leaning political party.

“What kind of security do we want?” he asked. “Military security? Human security? Ecological or economic security? That’s a debate that society needs to have.”

The housing crisis in Madrid has galvanized protests to protect renters. With the help of a renters union, Abascal has been fighting an eviction order in court for nearly five years.

Until the final appeal is settled, she said, she refuses to leave.

“I don’t have anywhere to go,” she said. “What do I do? Move to the middle of the countryside and grow carrots?”