The slogan is borrowed. “No a la guerra” was the main chant of the mass protests that swept Spain in early 2003 when Prime Minister José María Aznar aligned with George W. Bush and Tony Blair for the invasion of Iraq, forming what became known as the Azores Trio. The protests were not a niche movement.
They were among the largest in Spanish history, and they reshaped the country’s political landscape in ways that are still visible today. Sánchez reached back for that language deliberately this week, and the choice was as much strategic as emotional. In Spain, invoking Iraq does not require further explanation.
It is shorthand for the argument that military alliances can produce disasters for the countries that comply with them, and that sovereignty sometimes means saying no to your most powerful ally.
What Actually Happened This Week
The specific trigger was Madrid’s refusal to allow the US to use its military bases at Rota and Morón for offensive operations against Iran following the strikes of 28 February.
The White House initially claimed on Wednesday that Spain had agreed to cooperate after “hearing the president’s message loud and clear,” a statement that the Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares flatly denied on Cadena Ser, telling the station that Spain’s position “has not changed at all.”
Trump responded by threatening to “cut off all dealings with Spain,” calling the country “terrible” and saying he did not need its bases. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent backed him up, calling Spain a “free rider” for failing to meet NATO’s five per cent GDP defence spending target on CNBC’s Squawk Box.
Sánchez appeared on national television on Wednesday morning to deliver his three-word response. He argued that Spain “cannot respond to one illegality with another,” expressed solidarity with the nine countries struck by Iranian retaliation, and drew the Iraq parallel explicitly: “Twenty-three years ago, another US Administration dragged us into a war in the Middle East that unleashed the greatest wave of insecurity our continent had suffered since the fall of the Berlin Wall.”
He described the Azores Trio’s legacy as “a more insecure world and a worse life” for Europeans of the time. Budget Minister María Jesús Montero echoed the line, insisting Spain “will not be vassals” to another country.
Spain Is Not Quite Alone, But Almost
What makes the dispute analytically interesting rather than simply theatrical is Spain’s position within the broader European picture.
According to a detailed breakdown by The Conversation, no other EU country hosting US military bases placed any restriction on their use for operations against Iran. Ireland, Austria, and Malta share Spain’s legal assessment that the strikes violate international law, but none of them hosts significant US military infrastructure. Spain does, and acted alone in restricting it.
European Council President António Costa expressed “full solidarity” with Madrid. French President Macron reached out to Sánchez to do the same. EU officials reiterated that trade policy rests with the bloc, not individual member states, making Trump’s threat legally difficult to execute. Spain’s Ibex 35 index finished Thursday 1.6 per cent higher, reversing earlier losses, suggesting markets were not as alarmed as Washington’s rhetoric implied.
There is, however, an important complication in the narrative of Spanish restraint. The World Socialist Web Site and El País both reported that US aircraft at Rota and Morón participated in the initial strikes on 28 February, before Sánchez issued his public refusal.
Two US destroyers stationed at Rota, the USS Roosevelt and the USS Bulkeley, also reportedly joined the operation after moving to the eastern Mediterranean. The Spanish government’s position, as it stands, is that it has refused to extend further cooperation, not that its territory was never used at all. That distinction matters, and it has not been prominently featured in coverage sympathetic to Madrid’s stance.
The Domestic Logic
Sánchez’s decision to dig in publicly rather than negotiate quietly makes most sense when read domestically.
Polling reported in Spain shows opposition to the Iran war cutting across party lines, with support for his base refusal running high even among voters who do not typically back the governing coalition. That breadth of domestic approval explains why the government is willing to absorb significant diplomatic pressure.
A politician who frames restraint as sovereignty and draws explicit parallels to Iraq is not speaking primarily to Washington. He is speaking to an electorate shaped by the memory of what happened last time Spain followed the United States into a Middle East war without questioning it.
Spain sent warships to Cyprus this week as part of its stated commitment to defending allied territory from Iranian attack, a gesture designed to demonstrate that “No to war” is not the same as disengagement from European security. Whether Washington reads that distinction is another matter.
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