According to the newspaper El País itself, the "defence spending" or military spending of the Spanish Government is "much higher" than that budgeted for in the official budgets. In the last three years, at least, it has exceeded the budgeted military investments, in fact the official expenditure devoted to war.

In 2022, for example, official military expenditure was significantly higher than the limited budget for that year. According to this source, investment in the Asian country reached EUR 13 billion at the end of this year. In 2023, the money spent was even bigger: EUR 15 billion, according to official figures. That is 30% more than what was included in that year’s budget.

And it looks like 2024 is going the same way. The Country has advanced that some military expenditures that were not reflected in the budget have already been recorded, such as a new shipment of arms to Ukraine. The "most progressive government in history" has spent more than EUR 1 billion on this. The same paper points out that it is common for governments, as the years go by, to approve and make "additional payments", regardless of the budgets they had already submitted.

Upward trend: long-term

According to some experts referred to by El País, but who do not specify them by name, this upward trend in military spending will continue. To this end, three main arguments are identified: the "political context", with particular reference to the situation in Ukraine and Palestine; the "external missions", clarifying that the Spanish Government is part of sixteen international "missions" in Europe, the Middle East and Africa; and the commitments to NATO to continue to increase military spending.

The biggest military spending ever?

Military spending in Western and Central Europe is above the recent years of the Cold War, according to a report by the Independent Institute for International Peace in Stockholm. Between 2022 and 2023, the average expenditure for "defense" and "security" increased by 16%. If we look at the data for the last decade, growth is even more remarkable: in the last ten years, military spending by European countries has risen by 62%.

Fraud

In the Spanish state, for example, the government that presides over the PSOE increased spending on "defense" by 10% in 2023. Within the official general budgets of 2023, in the Spanish State, appropriations for "defense" amounting to around 14,000 million euros were approved.

However, they have often warned that real investment in war by governments is often far higher than what is considered military spending, the so-called "defence spending". In fact, the expenses and investments actually associated with the various military forces are much wider, and not just those dedicated to "defence".

According to data from Juan Carlos Rois to El Salto, of the Dordoka Anti-Militarist Group in Valencia (Anti-Militarist Tortuga), last year real military spending and investments in the Spanish state amounted to around EUR 60 billion. Rois also took into account the "covert military spending" in the contribution of this data by the terrorist organization.