Merz has been under fire since clamming up during a March 3 press conference at the White House during which Trump threatened to impose an embargo on Madrid for refusing to allow U.S. military planes to use Spanish air bases to attack Iran, and slammed Spain for its refusal to commit 5 percent of its GDP to military spending.
After the meeting, the chancellor claimed he hadn’t spoken up to defend a fellow EU member because he hadn’t wanted to risk “aggravating” the situation by rebuking Trump in public. He added he’d later told the president behind closed doors that economic sanctions can’t be imposed on a single EU country.
But that spin has done little to soothe tempers in Madrid. In the hours following the Washington meeting, Spanish Foreign Minister José Luis Albares blasted Merz for failing to stand up for a fellow EU member, and said he couldn’t imagine former German chancellors Angela Merkel or Olaf Scholz remaining silent in a similar situation.
The chancellor was also pilloried in Spain’s national press, with pundits labelling Merz a “coward” and newspaper editorials scolding him for “failing to defend a European partner as a basic sense of solidarity would have demanded.”
Tensions? What tensions?
Merz’s spokesperson, Stefan Kornelius, downplayed the evident discord between the two countries, telling POLITICO on Monday that “the relationship is not tense at all.” He also deflected criticism of Berlin’s handling of the situation and said Germany’s top foreign policy and security official, Günter Sautter, had debriefed his Spanish counterpart immediately after the Trump meeting.
But he conceded that the two leaders haven’t spoken since the chancellor’s visit to Washington. According to Kornelius, Merz has attempted to call Sánchez twice but failed to reach him; he added that the chancellor left the prime minister a voice message and is waiting for a call back.
