The defense boom, and in particular the surge in public funding allocated to it, has provided a much-needed boost to the results of Indra, the Spanish defense company in which the State holds a 28% stake. Between January and December 2025, the company, chaired by Ángel Escribano, earned €436 million, a 57% increase compared to 2024, as reported by the company to the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) on Wednesday afternoon. Regarding the potential acquisition of the Escribano Group—a deal that has generated controversy due to a possible conflict of interest—Indra's CEO, José Vicente de los Mozos, simply stated that it is still under review. With these profits in hand, Indra has expressed optimism regarding its 2026 revenue: it expects to reach €7 billion. In fact, it has set much more ambitious targets than those outlined in its 2024-2026 Strategic Plan. At that time, Indra projected revenues of €6 billion this year. "We are confident in increased defense spending in Europe and Spain," Escribano stated at a press conference this Wednesday, held remotely and without questions.

Although it's the Christmas holidays and it seems like everyone should be happy, the latest CIS poll It says that the main concern of Spaniards for the next ten years is war, above unemployment or climate change. A quarter of the surveyed population said this, but it doesn't explain the reasons for this fear. 3.5% are concerned about international tensions, economic conflicts, the power of China, ideological radicalization, and totalitarian regimes, but this percentage is too small to interpret the first question.

Who manufactures weapons in Spain? The European consortium Airbus, Navantia (a state-owned company), Indra, GDELS-Santa Bárbara Sistemas, Expal, and ITP Aero. These are the major players in the Spanish military industry, which, as in most countries, concentrates the bulk of the business in the hands of a few. Specifically, these six companies control 80% of the market. In Catalonia, only Indra has a presence: it has up to 12 facilities spread across the region, with 3,500 employees. Indra, an IBEX 35 company headquartered in Madrid, has made significant progress in recent years, ever since the Sánchez government assigned it the role of "national coordinator" in the program to replace the Eurofighter aircraft in 2019. In 2020, Marc Murtra, from the Socialist Party, arrived as non-executive chairman—he is now executive chairman of Telefónica. With 28% of the share capital, the State is Indra's largest shareholder. Murtra's predecessor was Fernando Abril-Martorell, a member of the People's Party (PP). The current CEO is Ángel Escribano: Escribano Mechanical & Engineering (EM&E Group) is Indra's second-largest shareholder, with 14.3%. The other major shareholders are the Basque company SAPA (7.9%) and the Amber fund (7.3%), the main owner of Prisa. In 2024, Indra's profit increased by 35% compared to the previous year, reaching €278 million.

Finland remains the happiest country in the world according to theWorld Happiness ReportDespite its struggling economy battling stagnation, the unemployment rate is already the second highest in the EU (only behind Spain), and imbalances in public finances are leading to significant cuts in its prized welfare state. Not so many years ago, the Nordic country was an example of what are known as... countries frugal and one of the EU's most fiscally disciplined partners. Now things have changed, and the country's public debt is projected to reach 90% next year, almost 50% higher than in 2019. The public deficit has also risen this year to 4.5% of GDP, a figure higher than the 3% of GDP tolerated by Brussels.

It is common to set economic policy targets as minimum percentages of GDP for the corresponding expenditure. Examples: Trump demands 5% of GDP for defense from Europe, the EU 3% for R&D investment, the OECD 1% for environmental spending, Spanish university laws 1% for universities, and a proposed popular legislative initiative (ILP) 6% for education. There are also targets, less tied to specific policies, that demand maximum levels. For example, the EU Stability and Growth Pact sets a maximum fiscal deficit of 3% of GDP.

How much does the Spanish government spend on defense? And what is the fiscal impact of this spending? These are questions the Fiscal Authority asked itself when preparing the report on budget execution for 2025, but it has been unable to answer. The agency chaired by Cristina Herrero criticizes the agency for being blind in its calculation of public spending in this area and its impact on the deficit and debt, although the Spanish government intends to reach 2% of GDP on defense by 2025 to comply with NATO.

Military spending is the typical topic exploited by the commentators of the day—that is, those who must make a comment anywhere and under any circumstance—to criticize anti-militarists and, above all, to accuse the belief that we can live in a world without armies and in peace as naive. However, for now, the only thing that is certain is that we live in a world with armies that is not at peace. A world under the permanent threat of world war, with conflicts breaking out in different parts of the planet. A world that suffers from stratospheric social inequalities and allocates an equally disproportionate amount of money to so-called defense services that only defend the interests of egomaniacs incompetent in diplomacy. Democratically elected megalomaniacs, some more than others, who receive the votes, paradoxically, of those who will suffer the most from the consequences of their policies and who will be the jailers of their own prisons. We live in a land that constantly revolves around the same mistakes without resolving them and falls again and again, as if it were an inevitable physical fact. A land full of graves of lives that were full and have suddenly been emptied by these weapons and bombs that we must buy and must have to defend ourselves against our enemies. A defense that must also be acquired under threat, because if you don't buy it, they coerce you into not buying it. From the outset, they already put the gun to your chest. It can't be said that they aren't consistent. But that's what security is all about: constantly threatening you. So the question is obvious: What should we really defend ourselves against? Are we safe in a world where bombs don't fall on us directly but we see them annihilating other human beings? Will we be much more at ease if we rearm and allocate taxes to camouflage uniforms and supersonic aircraft, which are equally susceptible to being shot down but will die killing? Who do we want to enrich the most, apart from the corrupt? Who, as always, is benefiting from so much killing, so much destruction, and so much threat? Is it really naive to start standing up to all this? Maybe it's impossible to do, but isn't that what everyone should really be thinking?

When he justified his about-face with the amnesty, Sánchez already made clear one of his mottos: "making a virtue out of necessity." And that's exactly what he did at the NATO summit. It's not, therefore, that he sought out the clash to use as a smokescreen for the corruption scandals affecting the PSOE, but rather that he found it and, once inside, decided to do what he always does: extract maximum political benefit.

Spanish President Pedro Sánchez has stood firm in his refusal to allocate 3.5% of GDP to military spending at the NATO summit in The Hague, despite having signed the final declaration. This has provoked the ire of Donald Trump, who, in his usual style, threatened Spain with "We will make you pay double," personally threatening to retaliate for this decision. Sánchez has deviated from a script designed to please Trump and thus avoid the temptation for the US leader to break with his European partners. Hence the excessive praise of NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte for Trump, both in public and private, and a staged display designed to flatter the US president.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has called for NATO member states to spend 5% of their GDP annually on defense starting in 2035: 3.5% on military investment and 1.5% on all types of infrastructure that can be used for defense. The idea is President Trump's, who wants to reduce the US contribution to the Atlantic budget, which it currently supports. by about 58%Trump is saying that if Europeans want to defend themselves, they should pay for it. And that Spain contributes little and should contribute more.

The proposal was clear: to increase defense spending by NATO countries to 5% of GDP. For Spain, this would represent an increase of 50 billion euros.

We are still in the aftermath of the great blackout, and it is time for some reflections. The first, about the cCommunication from the Government of Catalonia and the Spanish GovernmentPresident Illa:

Pedro Sánchez has chosen not to formally announce that he will not present the 2025 budget, although as of April 23, it's obvious that there's practically no point in presenting a draft when the stability path hasn't even been approved. "The government is committed to presenting the budget. A 2% commitment, we have to do it as soon as possible," the Spanish president said in his appearance on Tuesday. Letting the days pass is a way of confirming that he will not present this year's accounts, but he avoids an announcement that would be detrimental to him because it would show that he doesn't have the support in Congress. A window of opportunity to move forward. defense and security investment plan announced this Tuesday without going through the lower chamber. If accompanied by new accounts, it would hardly find the necessary support to approve figures that would put the increase in military spending in black and white. The Spanish government has opted for budgetary engineering to finance an investment plan that still cannot count on new money from Europe.

Pedro Sánchez announced the brutal increase in Spain's arms spending. With a funeral face. It's understandable: it's a counterproductive policy for the image the Spanish president has long been working to build, as a progressive leader who resists the onslaught of internal and external neo-fascist waves. More specifically, it creates internal problems and unrest with Sumar, and even worse: it further weakens Sumar, to the extent that voters in the political space known as "the left of the PSOE" see how Yolanda Díaz's party does nothing but swallow frogs at each cabinet meeting, only to occasionally achieve isolated victories from the brink. In the polls, depending on who commissions them and their intentions, the Socialists more or less hold their own, but Sumar always comes out plummeting in voting intentions. And Sánchez knows he needs them to have a chance of returning to the presidency, as he wants, in 2027.

Reading and loving. Sant Jordi could be summed up in these two beautiful words. A holiday celebrated with literature and love, in April, just as the trees begin to bud and the days become decidedly longer, is unbeatable. Sant Jordi is a collective explosion but also personal, a day that has a score that everyone can interpret by introducing their own variations.

Spain increases defense spending by 2% of GDP with the plan Pedro Sánchez presented at the Moncloa Palace on Tuesday. The Council of Ministers approved the industrial and technological project that the Spanish president announced in a meeting. appearance in Congress less than a month ago And now it has been finalized. It will represent an additional 10.471 billion, for a total of more than 33 billion. "With the plan we are presenting, Spain will achieve 2% of GDP for security and defense by 2025," promised Sánchez, who announced that he will appear again in the Lower House to present it to the deputies, but not to put it to a vote, because it does not entail a deviation from the approved budget. This Wednesday, the plan will be sent to Brussels and NATO for their approval. In fact, this Tuesday Sánchez already spoke with the Secretary General of the NATO, Mark Rutte, who welcomed the Spanish government's announcement that it will reach 2% of GDP "faster."

For now, NATO does not accept subterfuges to get Spain to increase military spending.Last week, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte rejected the idea that investment in cybersecurity, terrorism, and border control could be counted as a percentage of GDP in the defense budget. This Tuesday, the Council of Ministers transferred €2.084 billion to the ministry headed by Margarita Robles. This amount will not be included in the 2024 financial year because NATO provides figures on what was spent during the year in question, but Spain has shown that it will also be involved in strictly military spending. As it has done on other occasions, Sumar has raised objections internally within the Council of Ministers, but the decision has still been approved.

With the blood the northern fiscal hawks made us sweat during the financial crisis and the effort it took to mobilize resources to confront the COVID pandemic, now in four days the EU Commission has decided to unleash €800 billion to address the security problems caused by Donald Trump's madness. The difference with the first crisis is that this time the dictates come not only from the European troika that imposed austerity after the 2008 financial crisis, but also from NATO and the US, which combine the fears of some countries bordering Putin's Russia with the classic American demands for greater austerity. The difference with the effort made during the pandemic crisis is that now there isn't a single euro of free subsidies; the loans are reduced to €150 billion, and each government must contribute the remainder. The only advantage, which is saying something, is that the champions of Lutheran frugality are now willing to modify the budget stability targets so that all defensive "investment" does not count toward the deficit and debt ceilings.

It has been a long time since the debate on military spending in Spain, a country that united under the slogan "No to war" when José María Aznar sent troops to Iraq, had been so frank. However, Vladimir Putin's expansionist intentions and Donald Trump's threats to fail to guarantee the security of NATO countries have changed the landscape, and Pedro Sánchez defended the rearmament plan pushed through Brussels this Wednesday. The Spanish Prime Minister announced in Congress that he will present an investment plan before the summer, though he has not specified it and, in principle, will not have to be voted on in the lower house. Sánchez has once again stated that for now he has no support for increasing defense spending, and the Spanish government is already preparing formulas for reorganizing the extended budget to avoid needing the approval of the political groups.

Military spending in 2023 in the US was $761 billion. In the EU, it was $268 billion; and in Russia, $81 billion. For the EU, winning the war in Ukraine is not a matter of military spending (we have plenty). It requires the will to win and the acceptance that there will be casualties. Europe refuses to accept this.