MADRID—It took the White House more than seven years to lock in Spain on President Barack Obama’s foreign travel schedule. But events beyond Obama’s control have turned his first and only visit to Spain, the largest European country that had yet to welcome the president, into a rushed one.
Instead of spending two days sightseeing in southern Spain and tending to more official business in the capital of Madrid, the White House scrapped some of Obama’s events—including a staple of his foreign travels, a question-and-answer forum with young adults—and crammed the rest of his schedule into Sunday.
Deadly shootings last week of black men by police in Louisiana and Minnesota, followed by the sniper killings of five police officers in Dallas, led Obama to make the unusual choice to return to the White House late Sunday, a day earlier than originally planned.
Obama has been loath to tear up his schedule in response to previous acts of violence, saying repeatedly that altering his plans would be tantamount to giving in to terrorists. But terrorists didn’t strike in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, near St. Paul, Minnesota, or Dallas. The assaults followed June’s deadly shooting at an Orlando, Florida, nightclub and the rise in so-called lone-wolf terrorism, heightening fears about public safety.
Obama noted the “difficult week” as he made small talk Sunday with King Felipe VI after arriving at Spain’s Royal Palace for a meeting.
The king thanked Obama for visiting under the circumstances. The stop in Spain is the last leg of what is likely Obama’s final trip to Europe before he leaves office in January. He arrived late Saturday from Poland, where he attended a NATO summit.
The White House said the visit will highlight security cooperation between the trans-Atlantic allies, as well as political and economic ties.
Obama was also meeting with acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy before heading to Naval Station Rota, in the south. He planned to tour the USS Ross, one of four guided-missile destroyers based there, and address troops there before the flight home.
Spain has been gripped by a political stalemate for months, with Rajoy unable to garner the necessary support to form a new coalition government following a late-June election. It was the country’s second round of inconclusive balloting in the past year.
Rajoy’s party also won an election in December, but no other major party was willing to help him form a government.
