The last time the conservative Partido Popular (PP) was governing Spain, the satirical television show Los Guiñoles was still being broadcast, with its latex puppets lampooning the country’s public figures. One of its most memorable targets was Manuel Fraga, even then a decidedly long-in-the-tooth politician, who on at least one occasion was portrayed as a dinosaur, complete with scaly tail and brontosaurus-style limbs. This image was fuelled by the fact that Fraga was still, in his eighties, the premier of Galicia, a position he held between 1990 and 2005. Also, perhaps most famously, he had been a minister under Franco. But it’s clear that there was more to Fraga, who died on Sunday … [Read more...] about Fraga: a unique figure during an extraordinary time
Politics
A short honeymoon for Spain’s Rajoy
When Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría announced the new Spanish government’s battery of cuts worth €8.9 million plus tax increases, there were plenty of questions in the air. Why such heavy cuts? How will the new tax increases work? Will there be more cuts? The deputy prime minister’s answer to the first query was that the cuts are extreme because the 2011 deficit is 8 percent of GDP, rather than the 6 percent the outgoing Socialists had estimated. Public Administrations Minister Cristóbal Montoro offered detail about the tax rises. And the fact that the 2012 budget has yet to be presented means yes, there will be more austerity measures later in the year, although … [Read more...] about A short honeymoon for Spain’s Rajoy
Spain’s Socialists don’t know where to turn
A new Spanish government takes office and the year comes to a close, but the end is still not in sight for the existential crisis that the country's Socialist Party (PSOE) is suffering. It's a crisis that one way or another, the PSOE has been going through for about 12 months, ever since José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero let slip, around Christmas of last year, that he might not be the party's candidate in the next general elections. The frenzy of expectation was only partially dampened when Zapatero confirmed he wouldn't be running, and the debate over who would succeed him gathered steam. The “debate” turned into a swift rubber-stamping of the veteran Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba as the … [Read more...] about Spain’s Socialists don’t know where to turn
Iberians of the Year 2011: Spain’s Indignados
From Tunis to Cairo and from Madrid to Manhattan, outrage has been the overwhelming theme of 2011. Outrage at ineffectual, unrepresentative political systems, outrage at coddled elites, outrage at the financial system and the perceived culprits for the economic turmoil that has spread around the world. The year of outrage began on the streets of Tunisia in January, spread throughout North Africa and the Middle East as Arab Spring revolutions unfolded across the region, and, by late spring, the wave of indignation hit Europe. In Madrid in May, the seed of a different style of revolution was planted as thousands of activists - mostly young, many unemployed - set up camp in the city … [Read more...] about Iberians of the Year 2011: Spain’s Indignados
Morocco sets path for reform but questions of impact linger
Echoing the actions of governments across the region, Morocco’s King Mohammed VI responded to a growing wave of public protests in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya earlier this year with a two-tiered pledge of political reform and increased financial aid to the local population. Although the country had largely escaped the kind of large-scale demonstrations that filled city centres in Cairo and Tunis, Morocco’s February 20 movement of reform-minded groups and members of the Justice and Development Party (PJD) garnered support as the country’s version of the Arab Spring. After nearly tripling food and fuel subsidies and increasing government worker salaries, the king introduced a new constitution … [Read more...] about Morocco sets path for reform but questions of impact linger
Spain wrestles with Franco’s resting place
When friends or family come to Spain to visit and ask me to name the sites they should see in and around Madrid, they’re always surprised when I put a monument to fascism near the top of the list. But there’s no denying it, El Valle de los Caídos, or the Valley of the Fallen, the resting place of dictator Francisco Franco, is an awe-inspiring place. You can see it from miles away, a 150-meter-high stone cross – one of the world’s largest – rising up out of a rocky hillside north of the capital. Beneath the cross a huge esplanade gives a view over a strangely peaceful, wooded valley. Go on a clear day and the blue sky is a breathtaking backdrop to the scene. Go there in rain or sleet and … [Read more...] about Spain wrestles with Franco’s resting place
Spain turns right, but where’s the far right?
Viewed in a certain light - and especially through a myopic leftist lens - the centre-right Popular Party's landslide victory on the anniversary of Franco's death could be seen as an ironic twist of fate, a disquieting rise of the phoenix: The party was, after all, founded by a former minister in Franco’s government and many of its elderly voters were supporters of the regime. Now the PP, led by Mariano Rajoy (who, ironically enough, was born less than 100 kilometres from Franco's birthplace in Galicia in north-western Spain), will have sweeping powers to pass laws and institute reforms. In the run-up to election day, no one wanted to make too obvious the link between the dates - … [Read more...] about Spain turns right, but where’s the far right?
Who will be in charge for Rajoy’s great Spanish clean-up?
In 2002, when the Prestige oil tanker sank off the coast of Galicia, Mariano Rajoy was the Popular Party (PP) government’s official spokesman and was designated to oversee the handling of the crisis. The administration faced heavy criticism from some quarters for its management of the event, not least when Rajoy asserted that the spill, which would eventually see 20 million gallons of oil pour into the sea, had produced little more than “little threads of oil that look like plasticine”. Nine years on, Rajoy faces an even bigger task: to clean up Spain’s finances and oversee its economic recovery, while maintaining the support of sceptical Spaniards and the approval of a crisis-ravaged … [Read more...] about Who will be in charge for Rajoy’s great Spanish clean-up?
Right sweeps to power in Spain, but don’t expect “miracles”
"There will be no miracles, I didn't promise any," PP leader Mariano Rajoy declared pragmatically on Sunday night after his party took almost 45 percent of the vote, winning an absolute majority in Congress in its strongest ever election result. With 186 seats in the 350-seat Congress, Rajoy, who is due to take office in a month, will have a virtually free hand to carry out reforms, although no one knows for sure what steps the new government plans to take to end years of recession and anaemic growth, the euro zone's highest unemployment rate and an escalating debt crisis. Having kept his cards close to his chest throughout the campaign, Rajoy will now be expected to show them - … [Read more...] about Right sweeps to power in Spain, but don’t expect “miracles”
Spain’s election will complete country’s swing to the right
On November 20, the fate of another European leader will be sealed by the ongoing economic crisis. Barring a major surprise, Spain will vote in conservative Mariano Rajoy as its new prime minister, to replace José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. Zapatero is not running for reelection a second time, instead his Socialist colleague Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba is the government-backed candidate. But when Zapatero announced earlier this year that he would be stepping aside, there was no doubt that it was the economy that had cut his career short, in the same way it has ended the administrations of Georgios Papandreou of Greece and Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi. With Spain once again exposed to market … [Read more...] about Spain’s election will complete country’s swing to the right