View from Spain: Seeking 'New Multilateralism'

A former senior official calls Trump's agenda "conducive to confrontation," not "peace and prosperity."

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Spain has emerged as one of the most vocal opponents of the Trump administration’s upheaval of the international system — unlike the many countries trying to avoid getting caught in Washington’s crosshairs.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has challenged the administration over its war against Iran, its approach to Gaza and the International Criminal Court, its demands for higher European defense spending and its broader rejection of international law and multilateral cooperation.

Yet Spain continues to regard the United States as a “natural and historic” ally. That tension — resisting Washington’s worldview while preserving the transatlantic relationship — led me to invite Cristina Gallach as the guest on the latest episode of The Diplomacy Podcast. She served as deputy foreign minister in Sánchez’s government, following a stint as U.N. undersecretary-general for communications.

Explaining Spain’s position in its current disagreements with Washington, Gallach noted that Spanish public opinion largely supports Sánchez’s defiance of Trump. Nearly 70 percent of Spaniards expressed unfavorable views of the United States in a YouGov poll in February, and 78 percent said they didn’t trust Trump “to do the right thing regarding world affairs” in a Pew survey in May.

The Trump administration’s agenda runs counter to Spain’s commitment to international law, Gallach said. “We don’t think it’s conducive to peace and prosperity. It’s conducive to confrontation,” she added. “We don’t like it.”

Today’s overlapping wars, trade conflicts and climate emergencies require more cooperation and stronger international institutions — not abandoning multilateralism, she said. But she called for a “new multilateralism” that reflects the distribution of power and influence in 2026, not a return to the system created in 1945.

I also asked her about the misinformation campaign that persuaded tens of thousands of migrants to swim from Morocco to Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta last month. That social-media campaign was based on a wrong interpretation of a Spanish Supreme Court ruling, falsely claiming that the migrants wouldn’t be expelled.

To hear her response, watch or listen to the episode above — or on one of these platforms: YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts.

As always, my guest’s opinions don’t necessarily represent my own views.

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