Fact check: Spain is actually one of the few countries to hold a referendum on NATO membership. Remain won by a comfortable, but not landslide margin of 57-43.

1. What the claim actually asserts — and why it matters

The original statement asserts two linked facts: that Spain is among the few countries to hold a referendum on NATO membership, and that the referendum produced a 57–43 remain victory. These are consequential assertions because referendums on alliance membership are rare and would be a discrete, verifiable historical event. The materials supplied for analysis, however, contain no reporting of any referendum result or historical referendum, and instead focus on contemporary operational and political interactions between Spain and NATO, which leaves the core claim unsupported by the documentation at hand ^{[1] [2] [3]}.

2. What the supplied sources actually cover — NATO involvement, not a ratification referendum

The sources attached to this review predominantly report on Spain’s operational role inside NATO, including air policing missions and deployments to the alliance’s eastern flank, as well as political disputes affecting US bases and defense spending discussions. These items show active participation in NATO operations and debates about defense policy, but none mention a membership referendum or vote percentages. The absence of any direct reference to a referendum in multiple contemporaneous items suggests the claim does not originate from the immediate set of documents provided ^{[4] [3] [5]}.

3. Cross-checking the evidence: multiple pieces say nothing about a referendum

Three distinct clusters of supplied analyses independently note that the respective articles do not discuss a referendum on NATO membership. One set explicitly flags unrelated domestic topics like military service and public opinion on conscription; another set emphasizes Spain’s operational contributions to NATO missions. This consistent silence across diverse items is not proof of absence nationally, but it does indicate the claim is not corroborated by the available news coverage and summaries provided for review ^{[6] [4] [3]}.

4. Alternative explanations the sources suggest — confusion with other NATO debates

The material suggests plausible alternative origins for the claim: public debate over defense spending, political rhetoric about NATO membership obligations, or confusion with referendum-like domestic votes on defense policy. For example, sources note discussion of Spain’s defense spending being criticized and operational commitments such as Icelandic air policing; these debates can be conflated with formal membership decisions in casual references, producing inaccurate summaries if unstated context is lost ^{[3] [4]}.

5. Where the claim would need corroboration — documentary and archival anchors

To verify the referendum claim authoritatively, one would need primary documentation: contemporaneous official results, archival electoral records, or coverage from major national/international outlets explicitly reporting a Spain-wide referendum on NATO membership and listing a 57–43 result. The supplied collection lacks any such primary or archival references. Absent those anchors in the provided evidence, the claim remains unsupported by the material under review ^{[1] [2]}.

6. Potential agendas and how they could shape the claim’s spread

Political actors or commentators critical of NATO or of Spain’s defense posture have an incentive to amplify narratives that lend democratic legitimacy—or controversy—to alliance membership. Conversely, proponents of NATO might overstate public support. The materials show partisan statements about NATO roles and defense spending rather than neutral archival reporting, so if the referendum claim is circulating it may be driven by advocacy framing rather than documentary fact; the supplied sources themselves do not present those referendum figures ^{[5] [7]}.

7. Bottom line and recommended next steps for verification

Based solely on the provided analyses and source summaries, the claim that Spain held a referendum on NATO membership that resulted in a 57–43 remain victory is not supported. The next verification steps are straightforward: consult primary electoral records, national archives, or contemporaneous major-media reporting that explicitly records a Spain-wide NATO membership referendum and its official tally. Without adding external sources beyond those supplied here, the claim must be treated as unverified by the evidence at hand ^{[2] [4]}.