Spain is becoming NATO’s next dictatorship. Trump must act now

A dangerous autocracy is emerging on Europe’s southwestern flank, hidden behind a thin veneer of constitutional legitimacy. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and his ruling socialist party (PSOE) have systematically hollowed out Spanish democracy, transforming a NATO ally into a lawless personal fiefdom. Leaked internal records published by Spain’s Libertad Digital recently exposed a coordinated conspiracy, revealing how Sanchez’s party operatives targeted independent magistrates within the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court.This deep institutional rot, documented under “Operacion PSOE,” utilized state intelligence and weaponized media outlets to intimidate jurists, prosecutors, and investigative journalists. When Judge Beatriz Biedma, who led the investigation that resulted in the conviction of the Prime Minister’s brother for illegal employment, uncovered financial links between regime officials and organized crime networks, the state machinery immediately intervened to force her off the case. This exposes an inescapable truth: Spain no longer functions as a nation ruled by law, because the governing party actively targets the judges who dare to enforce it.Electoral manipulation further reinforces this autocratic consolidation through a weaponized diplomatic apparatus. Bypassing parliamentary rejections, the administration exploited the 2022 Democratic Memory Law by issuing a radical administrative decree signed by Sofia Puente, sister of the transport minister. This bureaucratic fiat arbitrarily extended citizenship to millions of overseas residents under a fraudulent presumption of historical political exile. Over half a million new overseas electors entered the voter registries, creating an engineered voting bloc heavily concentrated in Havana and Buenos Aires. This artificial surge swelled the Census of Absent Residents by hundreds of thousands of voters in a deliberate bid to permanently alter domestic election outcomes. Although the Supreme Court suspended domestic voting rights for individuals lacking genuine proof of exile, government ministers publicly attacked these magistrates and described them “as rogue actors.” Such aggressive actions prove that the current Spanish government has abandoned democratic norms, relying instead on manufactured ballots and judicial intimidation.Washington remains remarkably blind to this unfolding geopolitical disaster, repeating the Cold War’s strategic blunders.In 1953, Dwight Eisenhower signed the “Pact of Madrid,” exchanging American moral legitimacy for military access to the Rota and Moron bases. Today, nearly 4,000 American active-duty troops and vital Aegis destroyers anchor Western security architecture on the Iberian Peninsula. These critical military assets, however, depend entirely on a host nation that remains stable, reliable, and law-abiding, but Sanchez has already restricted American base access when regional counterterrorism operations conflicted with the interests of his radical, far-left coalition partners. Consequently, relying on Spain’s deeply fractured domestic political opposition to reverse this authoritarian slide is a complete fantasy, as mainstream conservative parties refuse to form a unified front against the regime.The State Department must urgently change its approach by treating Madrid as a hostile autocracy rather than a democratic peer. American diplomats should issue a formal determination designating Spain a “constitutional dictatorship” and condition future bilateral recognition on a fully audited voter registry and an independent judiciary. Washington must immediately establish quiet, direct lines of intelligence sharing and material support to embattled magistrates, honest civil guards, and uncaptured media outlets.Concurrently, the Pentagon must initiate an immediate, scheduled withdrawal of all American personnel from Spain’s Rota and Moron facilities, consolidating these forces alongside existing Mediterranean assets drawn from Italy to anchor a permanent, heavily fortified U.S. military base in the Gaza Strip. The United States must fully recognize Moroccan sovereignty over Ceuta and Melilla, acknowledging that international treaties do not safeguard continental African outposts. SPAIN CHOSE CHINA AND IRAN. TRUMP MUST CHOOSE CATALONIAFurthermore, the Treasury Department must impose Global Magnitsky sanctions on the primary architects of this judicial purge, and the State Department should implement a Captive Courts watchlist that automatically denies American legal recognition to any Spanish judicial decree born of this thoroughly corrupt system.President Donald Trump must act now — hesitation only ensures that the strategic Strait of Gibraltar falls under the absolute control of an unchecked, anti-Western autocrat.Jose Lev Alvarez is an American–Israeli scholar specializing in international security policy. A multilingual veteran of the IDF special forces and the U.S. Army, he holds three master’s degrees and is completing a Ph.D. in Intelligence and Global Security in the Washington, D.C., area.