Sánchez and Feijóo will meet on Monday to discuss sending troops to Ukraine.

MadridPedro Sánchez and Alberto Núñez Feijóo will meet next Monday within the framework of The round of contacts by the Spanish president regarding a hypothetical deployment of troops on a peacekeeping mission to UkraineFor this, he needs the backing of a majority in Congress, which he does not have from the outset due to the opposition of some of his left-wing parliamentary allies. The leader of the People's Party (PP) has agreed to meet with the head of the national government, according to sources within the party, although he has set conditions for the meeting. He wants the discussion to cover not only Ukraine, but also the entire foreign policy of the Spanish government. In this regard, they stated that the PP will not support "any defense decision made in isolation" and demands a "binding vote" on "the entire budget, military strategy, and foreign policy."

And what does the Moncloa Palace say? For the Spanish government, the meeting falls within the "normal" dialogue with the opposition, even though Feijóo and Sánchez have not met since March of last year. "We are the government of dialogue," said spokesperson Elma Saiz, stating that the "complicated international context" justifies this round of talks with the PP and all parties. "He will share the information with the political groups," he said, without clarifying whether Sánchez will agree to address foreign policy comprehensively, as the PP demands, thus accepting Feijóo's conditions. "The important thing is that they are meeting," Spanish government sources stated.Núria Orriols Guiu reports.

The previous meeting between the Prime Minister and the leader of the opposition was on March 13 of last year at the Moncloa Palace, also to discuss defense issues and the war in Ukraine. They addressed the increase in military spending—which has not yet been put to a vote in the lower house—as part of another round of meetings with parliamentary groups.

Since then, the already strained relationship between the two leaders—they hadn't met since December 2023—has worsened as the legal cases against Sánchez have intensified and become a constant weapon used by the People's Party (PP). "We will not allow Sánchez to use national security as a smokescreen to cover up his parliamentary precariousness, his massive corruption, and his political decay," warned PP Deputy Prime Minister Miguel Tellado in a statement released by the party. The meeting will therefore take place at a time when bridges between the two main parties in Spain are almost nonexistent and when they are in the midst of an election campaign—less than a month before the elections in Aragon. "Our responsibility is not to talk about what Sánchez needs, but about everything that concerns Spaniards," argue the conservatives, who, to justify agreeing to the meeting despite this context, have demanded a broader range of topics that Feijóo wants to discuss with Sánchez. These include Spain's defense commitments "in their entirety" and "strategic priorities" in foreign policy—among which the Spanish government's "ties" with the "dictatorship" in Venezuela stand out. Shortly after the PP's statement, sources at La Moncloa confirmed that Sánchez will meet with Feijóo on Monday with the intention of explaining the "geopolitical changes taking place in the world." "He will also inform him of the security and diplomatic strategy that the [Spanish] government is deploying in response, which the executive branch regularly presents to Congress and the media," they added, in a clear jab at the leader of the opposition.

Sources within the Spanish government had already indicated last week that they would discuss more current affairs during the round of talks with parliamentary groups, which has been delayed by a week—Sánchez had announced it would begin this Monday—and will kick off with Feijóo, followed by the other groups, from largest to smallest. Sánchez has excluded those from the previous round. In any case, sources at La Moncloa (the Prime Minister's residence) are urging calm, as sending troops to Ukraine is by no means an immediate decision: it's worth remembering that Spain has conditioned its deployment on a ceasefire, but the national government already wants to sound out the parliamentary forces because they need their support.

Vox criticizes the PP for accepting

Vox, which will not participate in the round of talks and categorically rejects the deployment of troops, criticized the People's Party (PP) for agreeing to meet with Sánchez and "continuing to grovel" before the Socialist leader. "Feijóo will go to shake his hand at the worst possible moment for the Socialist Party (PSOE), after everything we are learning and the corruption that is surfacing," criticized the far-right's spokesperson in Congress, Pepa Millán, at a press conference. The Vox representative described the PP's willingness to give Sánchez "a lifeline" as "yet another swindle against all Spaniards" and warned that the PP leadership's decision "could interfere" with the negotiations to invest the PP's María Guardiola as president of Abra. The meeting "interferes with the change that Spain needs," lamented Millán, at a time when polls show the far right gaining ground, which exacerbates the PP's already existing dependence.