The Rise in Military Spending: A Manipulated Debate

• Spain's military spending has surged by 134% between 2019 and 2025, rising from 1.22% to 2.13% of GDP.
• The escalation has occurred without substantive parliamentary debate or public discourse despite its major implications.
• At the recent NATO summit in Ankara, member states committed to intensifying spending to approach the 5% target mandated by the U.S. and the military-industrial complex.

Key Arguments for Military Spending and Criticisms

• Russian Threat Narrative: The author argues that the invasion of Ukraine was driven by the hostile and provocative stance of NATO and the U.S., criticizing the current European reliance on a military solution over diplomacy.
• Economic Modernization: The claim that military investment drives technological innovation, productivity, and employment is labeled as false and strategically misguided.
• European Integration: The idea that higher military spending strengthens the European project is dismissed as a distraction that masks deep-seated social and productive weaknesses.

Policy Implications

• Military spending conflicts directly with essential public goals such as job quality, poverty reduction, housing rights, and climate action.
• The dynamic of militarization serves to reinforce regressive aspects of the European project and intensifies the struggle over limited public resources.
• The author urges working classes and activists to reclaim the debate from technocrats and political elites as a central pillar of progressive, transformative politics.