As part of swingeing spending cuts being implemented at the behest of the European Central Bank, the Spanish government is to slash state broadcaster RTVE’s budget this year by €200 million to €1.2 billion. RTVE’s board says the cuts will have a “devastating impact” on its programming, predicting that its audience figures for its two channels La 1 and La 2, will drop by 8 percent. La 1 frequently tops audience ratings thanks to hugely popular programs such as Cuéntame como pasó — a long-running drama telling the story of a family from the Franco era up to the present day— or fantasy saga Águila roja, and post-Civil War soap opera Amar en tiempos revueltos. But the channel says that the … [Read more...] about Even Spanish TV feels the pain
spain budget deficit
Basque ceasefire offers Zapatero illusion of a lifeline
The latest ETA ceasefire has the look of a Trojan horse. All previous truces have ended in a return to bloody violence by the Basque terrorist organisation. But in Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero’s mind, a little spark of optimism has surely been reignited at a time when he and his governing Socialist Party are in desperate need of a positive development. Yes, that very “optimism” which Zapatero expressed just hours before ETA ruptured its previous ceasefire, detonating a car bomb at Barajas airport and leaving two dead in late 2006. The prime minister has since spoken of his upbeat attitude towards the peace talks in Switzerland of that autumn as his biggest mistake. But … [Read more...] about Basque ceasefire offers Zapatero illusion of a lifeline
Not yet a Greek tragedy, but still a Spanish drama
“Complete insanity” is how Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero summed up speculation that his government had approached the International Monetary Fund to request a €280-billion bailout. “These rumours can increase differences and hurt the interests of our country, which is simply intolerable and of course we intend to fight it,” he told reporters in Brussels ahead of an emergency summit among leaders of countries using the euro currency. The IMF also denied the speculation. The rumours that Spain was looking for help started circulating after the European Union and the IMF agreed on Sunday to the first bailout of a euro-zone country, giving Greece a €110-billion loan over … [Read more...] about Not yet a Greek tragedy, but still a Spanish drama
What now for the “PIGS”?
Spanish savings bank La Caixa recently brought to market a €1-billion issue of three-year cédulas territoriales at 70 basis points over similar sovereign debt. As for the investors – 49 percent of these securities backed by loans to Spanish public administrations were picked up by German or British parties and 36 percent by locals. Given the horrific recent treatment of Greek debt, this benign event probably invites a closer look at the tenets behind the classification of a nation as one of the “PIGS” - as if the mere fact that Spanish sovereign 10-years are yielding approximately the same as when the crisis broke last December, whilst the Italian equivalent pays investors 10 basis points … [Read more...] about What now for the “PIGS”?
Navigating the impossible?
For someone who sets such great store by being photographed alongside the right people, January 28 was a fairly awful day for the Spanish prime minister. At the Davos World Economic Forum, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was pictured sitting between Greece’s Giorgos Papandreou and Latvia’s Valdis Zatlers. The inference was clear: Spain was in the same boat as Greece, which the EU has now agreed to help resolve its enormous public financing problems, and Latvia, which has Europe’s highest unemployment rate at nearly 23 percent. Much was made of the gaff by Zapatero’s handlers, who failed to put him in more reassuring company. But it was only the beginning of a perfect economic and political … [Read more...] about Navigating the impossible?