Visiting Reagan May Find Spain in Chilly Mood

The forthcoming visit of President Reagan has set off an unusual swell of anti-American feelings in Spain, a mood intensified by the American decision to impose a trade embargo on Nicaragua.

Pressured by angry public opinion, the Socialist government of Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez issued a statement Friday night expressing its “sharp concern” over the trade embargo. Officials believe that the government held back from issuing a harsher statement only because it did not want to ruin the atmosphere of the visit.

Reagan will arrive in Madrid from West Germany on Monday and remain until Wednesday--V-E Day--when he flies to Strasbourg, France, to address the European Parliament. Even this schedule has proved to be a source of friction.

Schedule Changed

The President was originally scheduled to remain in Germany longer and arrive in Madrid later. However, the White House changed the schedule to avoid the Reagans’ celebrating V-E Day on German soil. Spanish officials were reported to have been furious about the change, and for 10 days, they refused to accept the new schedule.

Unlike most Europeans, who, according to polls, have a high regard for the President, Spaniards tend to dislike him. In a poll published Saturday by the Spanish news magazine Cambio 16, only 22% of Spaniards questioned felt sympathy toward Reagan as a person, while 45% felt an antipathy. Only 24% looked on him as a good leader of the Western world while 47% saw him as a bad leader.

For this reason, a group of Communists, other leftists and pacifists expect a large turnout today for the march they have organized to protest the Reagan visit. The government, however, appears determined to ensure a cordial welcome for the President, and no prominent Socialist is expected to take part in the march.

The anti-Americanism appears to be rooted in the almost 30 years of military and economic aid that U.S. governments gave to the regime of the late dictator Francisco Franco.

Speaking informally and personally over a recent dinner, an official of the Spanish Foreign Ministry tried to explain what is going on.

“There has always been a latent anti-Americanism here,” he said. “There is a widespread feeling that the United States kept Franco in power with its support. But the feeling of anti-Americanism does not always come to a head. Nothing happened when President (Jimmy) Carter visited us in 1980. But the statements of Reagan in 1981 about East-West issues upset many people. And now Central America has become a major issue.”

The Nicaragua issue is an emotional one. Spain has made the transition from a dictatorship to a democracy only during the last decade, and, as a new democracy run by Socialists, it feels that it has a role to play, even if only as a model, in the Third World. In addition, after years of isolation under Franco, Spain is trying to strengthen ties with the Latin American countries, most of which were once Spanish colonies.

“The most troubling issue between the United States and Spain now is Nicaragua,” said the Foreign Ministry official. “There is a fear within the Spanish government that, if the United States keeps going in the same direction, the government will be forced to do something, perhaps issue an outright condemnation of what the United States is doing.”

To confuse matters further, Reagan arrives at a moment when Spain is struggling with the question of whether to remain in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Prime Minister Gonzalez, who now supports remaining in NATO after campaigning against it, has promised to fulfill an election promise and hold a referendum on the question early next year. Many Spaniards opposed to Spanish membership identify NATO with the United States and are protesting the Reagan visit as a way of campaigning for a vote against NATO in the referendum.

Perhaps to assuage anti-American sentiment that contributes to opposition to NATO, Gonzalez has pledged to reduce the number of American troops on Spanish soil. Under a treaty, which the Spanish intend to renegotiate, the United States operates three air bases and one naval station in Spain. This pledge by Gonzalez has led to a series of testy public comments by both American and Spanish officials.

In a news conference earlier this week, Gonzalez said that Spain regards the American soldiers as “foreign troops.”

“Franco drew support and lasted so long, in part, because of his treaties with the United States,” the prime minister said.

Several other recent incidents have irritated U.S.-Spanish relations in advance of the Reagan visit. In February, the Spanish government expelled two Americans with diplomatic passports after they were arrested while photographing the communications antennas over the offices of Gonzalez in the Moncloa Palace.

During the same week, Spanish officials were angered by reports from Washington that the U.S. government had contingency plans to store nuclear weapons in Spain. The plans were confirmed by the U.S. government, but the Spanish government announced that it would never allow such weapons to be stored on its soil.