Sánchez escalates anti-Israel rhetoric amid domestic unpopularity

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has increasingly come to resemble a Spanish version of Emmanuel Macron: unpopular at home, politically weakened, and desperate to seize on causes that might rally public opinion. In Sánchez’s case, that cause has become the Palestinian question.

Only days after the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacres, Sánchez took a clear and unwavering pro-Palestinian line. Since then, his rhetoric and actions have only intensified. 

He has called for banning Israel from international sporting competitions, excluding it from the Eurovision Song Contest, and openly sided with activists who disrupted Spain’s national cycling race, the Vuelta.

Now, Sánchez has gone even further. On Wednesday, he requested that a Spanish navy vessel be deployed in support of a so-called flotilla heading toward Gaza—a flotilla whose stated mission is to deliver a token amount of aid, a few dozen packets of pasta, but whose real objective is provocation and spectacle. 

Reports from organizers claim some of their ships were targeted by drones off the coast of Greece, raising further questions about the operation’s murky origins and opaque financing.

This is not statesmanship. It is political theater at the expense of Spain’s credibility on the international stage. 

Far from offering constructive leadership or a balanced approach to Middle Eastern diplomacy, Sánchez has embraced a posture that is not merely anti-Israel, but increasingly anti-Zionist—and, critics argue, perilously close to outright antisemitism.

Such a stance does more than isolate Spain diplomatically. It fuels polarization at home, emboldens fringe elements of the far-left coalition that sustains his government, and alienates democratic allies who regard Israel’s legitimacy as non-negotiable.

Spain deserves better than a prime minister who sacrifices international responsibility for short-term domestic posturing. Pedro Sánchez’s crusade against Israel may win him applause among radicals, but it risks leaving his government—and his country—isolated, discredited, and irrelevant.