Pedro Sánchez's arrival at La Moncloa meant that, for the first time, the occupant of La Moncloa was fluent in English, the language of international relations. This circumstance, combined with his penchant for the international agenda, for working on his international profile, has shaped the image of a leader who, unlike in the past, did not wait seated in his flag-adorned chair for informal conversations to end without making contact. The President of the Government boasts of greetings, small talk, conversations. On some occasions, there have been photos where either the president or a minister captured attention in an informal conversation or were part of an exclusive gathering.
None of that happened yesterday in The Hague. The light dimmed, and Sánchez was left in the shadows. The President of the Government distanced himself from his colleagues. An unprecedented, unusual image. Without interacting. It's not that there was no greeting or meeting with Donald Trump, which wasn't even sought, but there was no space for relaxation as he usually does. He did converse with the Turkish Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but only because they were two of the three leaders, along with the Prime Minister of Belgium, Bart de Wever, who quickly took their seats in the summit plenary while the rest of the leaders conversed around the room.
"Why not?" Sánchez responded when questioned about his attitude and decision to sit immediately upon entering the NATO summit plenary. "I'm not sure why I can't sit in my chair to prepare my speech. I am a president who has been in office for seven years. I know all the counterparts, I've been with Trump in 2018... Things seem to be stretched a lot, in my opinion," was his view of an attitude that caught the attention of those who usually see him at international summits.
In other moments, in other contexts, it would have been common to see Sánchez in small groups like those led by Emmanuel Macron, Keir Starmer, or Mette Frederiksen.
Not even in the most relaxed moments has Sánchez engaged in conversations. Distance, as if he wanted to explicitly show with his attitude what separates him from what was being discussed in The Hague: that allies significantly increase their investment in Defense and Security. Spain is not on that path, Sánchez maintains his stance to stay at 2.1% of spending, compared to 5%, because he believes that this expenditure covers the commitments made with the Alliance.
The main intrigue of the meeting was a possible encounter between Sánchez and Trump. They did not meet in the family photo on Tuesday with the Kings of the Netherlands or in the allies' photo on Wednesday. "It was a coincidence that we didn't greet each other," Sánchez explained. Even though they were in the same line on Wednesday and were separated by a few seats in the plenary, the NATO protocol and alphabetical order placed three seats between them. No gestures. By sitting early, Sánchez avoided the opportunity to meet with Trump as other leaders did. The Spanish delegation had already anticipated that, despite the tension, "we are not here for confrontation", and physically, that's what Sánchez put into practice.
But this apathy was also evident in the fact that the President of the Government did not hold - or at least did not communicate - bilateral meetings with any of the attending leaders. These meetings are usually the ideal setting for leaders to discuss pending issues, talk about bilateral relations on the sidelines of the summit. In this regard, Sánchez has always been very proactive, with a tightly packed agenda, especially focusing on countries with common interests or similar political sensitivities. Here, too, there was emptiness.
The head of the Government will participate on Thursday in a European Council summit in Brussels. A forum where in recent years he has displayed relationships and qualities of an international leader, although recent issues have not been the most favorable for his interests. But in this scenario, there is a factor he has recently exploited: the arrival of conservative leaders positioned him as a reference for social democracy in Europe. Brussels, an opportunity after The Hague to see if his apathy was or was not circumstantial.