As Spain’s Basque Country continued to reel from the death of 28-year-old Iñigo Cabacas, the region's interior department announced plans to restrict the use of rubber bullets as of January 1, 2013. An autopsy revealed that Cabacas died after receiving a rubber bullet to the head during riots following Athletic Bilbao's Europa League victory against Schalke 04 on April 5. The claim by the Ertzaintza, the Basque regional police, that no rounds were fired from a distance of less than 22 metres is contradicted by the conclusions of the autopsy report, which shows the fatal shot to have been fired from a much smaller distance. The rubber bullet restriction announcement by Basque interior … [Read more...] about Rubber bullet ban won’t solve Spain’s policing problem
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Ideology is first casualty of Spain’s economic crisis
The day José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero’s dream ended was not even marked by a speech from the unlikely new champion of glum realism. As Congress in Madrid debated in late May cutbacks effectively imposed by Frankfurt and Brussels, the Spanish prime minister, who had tended his very personal flame of optimism with so many smiling words, saw his political future turn to ashes without even taking the stand. The Socialist who had vowed to bring the benefits of economically successful Spain to the disadvantaged now looked on as Catalan nationalist Antoni Duran i Lleida announced that his bloc would save the government in the vote to cut public workers’ wages and freeze pensions, but declared that … [Read more...] about Ideology is first casualty of Spain’s economic crisis
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