An impressive fence

He stood at the gate. He waved his cape and showed a card. "I'm not going to pay you 5%," he had been repeating since Thursday. The bull came out and charged. A furious charge, with no fatal goring, so far. Tariffs are a matter for the European Union.

Pedro Sánchez emerged alive from The Hague yesterday. Critics say he's done well. Applause from his unconditional supporters, circumspect silence from those who already consider him dead. The Popular Party reiterated yesterday that Sánchez is lying about military spending. Sánchez lies, lies, lies relentlessly, but the main right-wing party had to tell Donald Trump that Spain is not under threat.

The strong clash with Trump is dangerous for Sánchez and at the same time gives him oxygen.

Since the Cuban War, a quarrel or a degree of tension with the United States always pays off. After having given them the bases at Rota, Morón, and Torrejón de Ardoz, General Franco refused to break diplomatic relations with Fidel Castro 's Cuba. Iberia never stopped flying to Havana. Adolfo Suárez embraced Yasser Arafat and delayed Spain's entry into NATO in 1980, and ended up paying for it. Felipe González knew from day one—from day one—that the PSOE could never defend Spain's withdrawal from the Atlantic Alliance in a referendum. José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero scored points the day he didn't stand before the US flag during the October 12th parade in 2003, but he ended his term in 2011, overwhelmed by a deadly economic crisis, agreeing to the expansion of the Rota base.

Two months ago, the slogan in Moncloa was to avoid a head-on clash with Trump, but circumstances have changed, oh yes, they have. The Italians attempted a certain tactical convergence with the Spanish to make it seem they accepted the 5%, only to later shape, adjust, and delay that objective. Giorgia Meloni and her Defense Minister, Guido Crosetto , a man from Leonardo, the large Italian public arms company, were willing to make a discreet pact with the Spanish to reinterpret the 5%. Francesco Olivo reported this from Rome in La Vanguardia . But under the current circumstances, Sánchez couldn't return from The Hague with the 5% tattooed on his arm. Sumar could definitely explode. Pressured by Podemos, Izquierda Unida could have entered into crisis. The coalition government could break up inside the enormous radioactive crater opened by the Cerdán-Ábalos case.

Sánchez needed a unique status and negotiated it with Mark Rutte. It's highly unlikely that the Pentagon wasn't informed. The bases. The Rota and Morón bases are now essential for the United States' deployment in the Middle East. Three of the five destroyers anchored in Rota are in Israeli waters with their powerful missile interception system. There was a large parade of tanker aircraft in Morón. The bases are essential, and hardly anyone has talked about them these days.

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Is Trump putting on a show? No. Trump always plays Trump, and he just warned Sánchez that it could end badly. "Get out of the way." The siege closing in on the Spanish president is impressive, and now he could have problems in the European Union. Sánchez's swearing-in has exposed some European leaders who would have preferred the carpet of unanimity.

"Sánchez is the most militaristic president Spain has ever had," says the Podemos leadership on its new Radio Tirana format. According to that ardent Albanian radio station from the 1970s, everyone is a traitor and revisionist, except for Comrade Enver Hoxha . Franco Battiato dedicated a song to them.

Yolanda Díaz returned to the blue bench yesterday after last week's uproar. The dead man is still alive, but the siege is impressive.