Pedro Sánchez Sides with Europe's Fifth Column on Russia

In the last century, it was quite natural for the political left in Western countries to form a fifth column in support of the Soviet Union. After all, socialists and communists shared a common worldview based on the philosophy outlined by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

However, the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, and as a result, a large number of more or less democratic, non-socialist states emerged in the area of the former socialist superpower. The largest of these was Russia, whose new leader, Boris Yeltsin, together with his administration, began to steer the country toward a market economy system, which had proven to be vastly superior to the socialist planned economy.

At the time, there was also a belief that the previously divided world would unite, and that its eastern part would develop toward a Western-style welfare state. There was even talk of “the end of history.”

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As I wrote yesterday, Finland has decided to withdraw from the Ottawa Treaty on anti-personnel mines. The decision was made with an overwhelming majority, but most of the current far left voted against it. This is largely the same group that has opposed measures aimed at preventing Russia from exploiting asylum seekers as part of its hybrid warfare.

In Spain, the country is governed by socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. He, too, appears to be siding with Russia by asking NATO to exempt Spain from raising its defense spending to five percent of its gross domestic product.

Behind this may be Sánchez’s calculation that Spain, being far from Russia’s border, is not in danger—even if Vladimir Putin’s army were to cross the border into the territory of the European Union. Or perhaps, like the Finnish far left, he is simply unable to recognize the threat that the heir of the former Soviet Union poses to the West.

In any case, it is clear that Ukraine’s harsh fate as the target of Putin’s imperialist aggression has taught nothing to the socialists in Finland and Spain. That is why they form an ideological fifth column within the European Union.

It remains to be seen, however, whether the socialists in other EU countries will also display a similar nostalgic sympathy toward Putin’s Russia as the left in Finland and Spain. And, of course, how NATO and U.S. President Donald Trump—who originally set the five percent target—will respond to the situation.

Previous thoughts on the same topic:
Finland Decides to Withdraw from the Ottawa Treaty — But What Business Is It of Guterres?
Ukraine’s Former Foreign Minister Warns Against Another 1939
Should Finland Heed the Warnings of a Left-Wing Idealist?