Spain increasingly hostile to US due to great differences over international integration

A study published by the Pew Research Center in July concluded that 40 percent of the world population considers the US to be an important threat and this percentage has risen sharply in the past four years in Spain, where this hostility has most increased.

Xinhua asked the opinions of two experts in international affairs for their views on the issue, with Xulio Rios, the director of the Spanish Observatory of Chinese Politics, commenting that part of Spain’s traditional antipathy to the US was due in part to historical events, such as the Cuban War at the end of the 19th century and the US support for the dictatorship of General Franco until his death in 1975. However, Rios believes the recent increase in hostility to the US has its roots in the “public perception of the role of the US in areas where Spain has an interest”... such as “Latin America or North Africa.”

He also believes that the arrival of the Trump administration with its “America First” slogan and its rejection of the Paris Agreement to combat climate change “represents a demonstration of selfishness and a lack of solidarity which provokes widespread rejection,” and that the “politics of strength which are so common in Washington rarely find sympathy in Spain.”

Rios adds that the economic crisis, which caused long lasting damage to the Spanish economy and the wellbeing of many Spaniards who have seen wages and spending power cut, “has allowed Spanish society to become more aware of its welfare state and to reject propos- als to move towards a more individualistic social model,” such as that seen in the US.

Meanwhile, Enrique Fanjul, a professor of International Relations at the University of San Pablo- CEU in Spain, explained that the country is very proEurope, while Trump has adopted a “less positive” position toward Europe than Obama showed.

He adds that the Spanish are generally in favor of free trade and “commercial openness,” which is “different from the US where protectionism has increased a lot under Trump.” Fanjul explains Spain has long had close links with Latin America and despite the crisis has not seen the rise of “xenophobic parties,” or “anti- immigration movements.”

The weekend’s events in the US city of Charlottesville, which saw a White Supremacy rally in which an anti- racism protester was killed when a car was driven into a crowd, shows there “is a great difference,” between Spain and the US “where there has been a strong anti- immigrant reaction.”

“Overall, I would say Spain has feelings favorable toward openness and international integration, while in the US, the tendency is the opposite,” he concludes.