The Defense Minister, Margarita Robles, has rejected —again— the intention that the leader of the Popular Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, travel to Latvia to visit the Spanish contingent deployed in the NATO mission on the border with Russia. In exchange, the Minister of Defense has offered the opposition leader to meet with the military upon his return to Spain.
This week, the Popular Party has revived this controversy that two months ago seemed to be buried. The president of the popular ones once again insisted on his interest in knowing on the ground the mission carried out by Spanish soldiers abroad. Through the PP’s Institutional Vice-Secretary, Esteban González Pons, a letter was addressed to the Ministry of Defense proposing the visit. That letter has had a response this Friday.
In the letter that Robles has addressed to González Pons —headed by a “dear Esteban”—, the minister reproaches the Popular Party for the low investment in Defense during their last governments. “One of the priorities of this Government is to improve the capacity of the Armed Forces and provide them with a budget so that, overcoming times in the past in which there were not enough investments, they can fulfill the missions entrusted to them,” the letter reads.
The minister also reproaches González Pons —in a veiled manner— for the fact that the Popular Party has only been interested in the detachment deployed in Latvia. “I want to suppose that your interest is extensive to all the missions that our Armies carry out.”
And immediately afterwards he cuts short the claims of the Popular Party: “I propose that you have a broad meeting with said contingents when I return to Spain.” And he does so by hiding behind the fact that this meeting can be held on national territory “without time limitations or the haste of a punctual visit and conditioned by the dynamics of an area of ​​operations.” “I will be delighted to be able to accompany you in that meeting”, concludes the Minister of Defense.
