“With a rapid movement, what was in sight has disappeared behind the man’s clenched fists, as if he were still trying to retain inside his mind the final image captured, a round red light at the traffic lights. I am blind, I am blind, he repeated in despair as they helped him to get out of the car, and the tears welling up made those eyes which he claimed were dead, shine even more.” (From Blindness). Given that his life was so often filled with polemic, perhaps it was fitting that José Saramago’s death should be surrounded by controversy. The late Portuguese novelist would have smiled from the afterlife –if he had believed in it– at the idea of the Vatican and his country’s president … [Read more...] about Saramago: Iberia’s Godless conscience
Zapatero’s summer of discontent
It’s not easy for any politician to be told he is a “political corpse.” But when the person saying this has just saved your skin it’s particularly hard to digest. So when Spain’s prime minister now looks at Josep Antoni Duran i Lleida, spokesman for the centre-right Catalan CiU grouping, it is with mixed feelings. CiU ensured José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero’s €15-billion austerity package went through Congress on May 27 by abstaining during the vote. The abstention meant the governing Socialists’ 169 deputies scraped the measures through, with 168 voting against. The Catalan conservatives justified their abstention by insisting that while they did not agree with all the measures, the … [Read more...] about Zapatero’s summer of discontent
Dark horse Díez races into the limelight
It’s a good time to be an outsider in politics. With the world economy still recovering from recession and politicians struggling to assert their moral credentials, the conditions are ripe for the self-proclaimed rebels to hog the spotlight. In the United States the right-wing Tea Party movement is gathering steam on the back of anger at traditional politicians’ lack of dynamism. In Britain, where an expenses scandal has undermined MPs, neither Labour nor the Conservatives were able to win a majority in the general election. In Spain, Rosa Díez, leader of Unión Progreso y Democracia (UPyD), must be rubbing her hands with glee as she looks at a similarly disgruntled electorate. She … [Read more...] about Dark horse Díez races into the limelight
Mourinho: Madrid’s saviour, Barça’s anti-Christ?
Someone once said that in England football is war, in Italy it is chess, and in Spain it is theatre. José Mourinho has proved that he can battle it out in England by winning the league title twice with Chelsea. He has also just shown he can manoeuvre with the best of them in Italy by winning the Scudetto, the Coppa and the Champions League in the same season. So now he comes to Spain, set on continuing an extraordinary campaign of European conquest that began in earnest when he announced himself to the world by leading Porto to the Champions League title in 2004. But if, as anticipated, he becomes Real Madrid’s new coach, can he provide the kind of success and theatre the club … [Read more...] about Mourinho: Madrid’s saviour, Barça’s anti-Christ?
The market tears up Zapatero’s social contract
“My government’s ambition is to make this an innovative, creative, entrepreneurial country while upholding the social welfare state… I think we should learn the lesson of the Great Depression: when an economy enters a deep recession, the only way we can come out of it is from a big push from the public sector.” José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero uttered these words less than a year ago. At the time, with Spain mired in recession, critics could argue with his ideological stance, but nobody could doubt his convictions. However, the prime minister’s announcement on May 12 of a broad and radical raft of austerity measures has seen him perform the biggest U-turn of his six years in government … [Read more...] about The market tears up Zapatero’s social contract
Waiting for Washington
The announcement that US Vice President Joe Biden would be visiting Madrid on May 7-8 as part of a short European tour was a welcome piece of news for the Spanish government and further proof of the positive relationship it enjoys with the current administration in Washington. The visit was scheduled to follow the meeting between Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington the previous week. Just three months earlier, Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was in the US capital himself, attending the National Prayer Breakfast as President Barack Obama’s guest, an event that followed a meeting between the two men at the White … [Read more...] about Waiting for Washington
The rebirth of corruption
A flick through a Spanish daily newspaper one particular day in early April made for instructive, if depressing, reading. The national news pages were dominated by the latest on a series of corruption scandals, all involving politicians. In Catalonia, the ‘Pretoria’ case saw members of the Socialist Party and the nationalist CiU embroiled in a scam involving construction contracts; in Estepona, Andalusia, the town’s former Popular Party mayor Rosa Díaz faced charges of illegally selling off land; in the Balearic Islands, Jaume Matas, a former Popular Party regional premier and national environment minister, had been told he needed to post €3 million bail in order to avoid being jailed … [Read more...] about The rebirth of corruption
Politics is ETA’s problem as it seeks global stage
When Nobel Peace Prize laureates F.W. de Klerk, Desmond Tutu and John Hume all back an initiative together with the support of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, it is bound to carry some weight. It is also likely to be a project with major international repercussions. But when South African human rights lawyer Brian Currin presented to the European Parliament a resolution backed by the above and another 17 figures from the world of politics and conflict mediation on March 29, the issue at hand was the relationship between the Basque Country, the small region in northern Spain, and Madrid. The statement sought to contribute to resolving what it called “the last remaining conflict in … [Read more...] about Politics is ETA’s problem as it seeks global stage
The curse of the EU presidency
In retrospect, Spain might be seen as one of the unluckiest ever holders of the EU rotating presidency. A host of unfortunate developments – most not of his own making – have conspired to make the first half of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero’s six-month term, which began on January 1, difficult and at times hapless. With Spain among the bloc’s most economically troubled members, it was always going to be hard for Zapatero to lead the EU out of recession from the front. Moreover, major institutional changes were implemented just as the term presidency was starting, with a degree of mystery surrounding the new system and its roles, including that of European Council president. As if that were … [Read more...] about The curse of the EU presidency
Bullfighting’s Catalan accent
It was meant to be a reasoned, informed debate about the pros and cons of bullfighting. Politicians, philosophers, writers, scientists and even a bullfighter were all due to give their views on the fiesta nacional and whether or not it should be banned in Catalonia. And yet, in one session alone, crucifixion, Colombian kidnappings and female circumcision were all invoked, insults such as “intellectual pigmy” and “hypocrite” were used and at one point, the scientist Jorge Wagensberg pulled out a sword to illustrate how much spearing the weapon into a bull’s back would hurt the animal. This passionate and often fractious debate was the result of a petition by anti-bullfighting … [Read more...] about Bullfighting’s Catalan accent