The cancellation of the final stage of the 2025 Vuelta a España cycling race in Madrid wasn’t just a sporting embarrassment. It reflected how Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s foreign policy has turned Spain into the main European voice against Israel, even at the cost of its international reputation and domestic stability.
Sánchez didn’t call for respect for the cyclists and the normal conduct of the event. He preferred to declare his “deep admiration” for the pro-Palestinian protesters who blocked the race until they achieved its suspension. This wasn’t an anecdote: It was just one more gesture in a long chain of decisions that clearly show which side Sánchez is on.
In May 2024, Spain unilaterally recognized the Palestinian state, along with Ireland and Norway. The diplomatic gesture was celebrated by pro-Palestinian groups, but prompted the immediate withdrawal of the Israeli ambassador in Madrid.
Shortly after, the Spanish government itself recalled its ambassador from Israel in the midst of the Gaza war, a move that sealed the deepest rift between the two countries in decades. This was compounded by the suspension of arms exports to Israel and Sánchez’s speeches at the United Nations and Brussels, singling out Israel as a violator of international law while downplaying Hamas’s crimes.
The latest chapter has been the termination of contracts with Israeli companies in key defense and security sectors. The government justified this as a matter of “moral coherence,” although the ministries involved are already estimating delays and cost overruns. To top it all off, several Spanish ministers asserted that Israeli technology would be “replaced with Spanish technology,” as if the country could overnight replace one of the world’s leaders in military innovation. The statement, far from reassuring, smacked of sarcasm: Spain, a laggard in R&D, promises drones and security systems on par with Israel with the same ease with which Sánchez promises peace in the Middle East.
The Vuelta race added an even more revealing political element. While Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida of Madrid and regional president of Madrid Isabel Díaz Ayuso argued that the Israeli cycling team should compete on equal terms, members of the government pressured it to withdraw. The division was evident: Some defended sport as a space for coexistence, while others tried to appease those who want to erase Israel from any international spotlight.
What should have been a celebration of sport has become a showcase for Spanish foreign policy: radicalized, biased and obsessed with pleasing those who applaud the boycott of Israel. The consequences are clear. Spain has lost strategic contracts, diplomatic credibility and the trust of a key ally in technology, security and international cooperation.
Amid investigations targeting members of Sánchez’s family and several of his trusted ministers for business irregularities or corruption, the leader of Spain presents himself as a moral leader of the Palestinian cause. The reality is that Sánchez’s policies erode the Mediterranean nation and place it on the wrong side of history, favoring those who celebrate confrontation and blockade instead of embracing cooperation, coexistence and stability.
