Well, The Times has
come out against Podemos, the new political party here which has
caused a lot of feather-fluttering in Madrid's dovecots. Here's what
they say today:-
Perilous Populism
In only ten months,
Spain’s newest left-wing political party has grown from an idea to
a national force that could not only decide the outcome of next
year’s general election, but win it.
Podemos — “we can”
— is the response of a country still reeling from years of
austerity, corruption and paralysing unemployment. It is the
brainchild of a charismatic pony-tailed university lecturer, Pablo
Iglesias, who brings more than a whiff of Latin American populism to
the Iberian peninsula and would nationalise half the Spanish economy
if he could.
Mr Iglesias has
energised the young, the poor and the disgruntled as no leader of
Spain’s two other main parties has in nearly 40 years since the
Franco era. “We have gone from being people who were bored by
elections to those who are dying for them to arrive,” one supporter
said.
Passion keeps democracy
alive just as apathy kills it. Protest channelled into politics is
better than protest that fills the streets with rioters and tear gas.
The trouble is that Mr Iglesias’s policies, from lowering the
retirement age to 60 to a mandatory 35-hour week, would throw Spain’s
faltering recovery into reverse and saddle the country with debts it
could never repay. Spain can certainly thrive again. Just not this
way.
Podemos has elbowed its
way into contention for power in two new polls. In one, it emerged
six points ahead of the ruling centre-right People’s Party and
three ahead of the socialist PSOE. That followed a survey that the
newspaper El Pais called a “political earthquake” showing that if
an election were held now, Podemos would win.
A majority next year
for the People’s Party and its leader, Mariano Rajoy, now seems
impossible. Such is his reward for forcing through parliament painful
but essential reforms without which Spain would still be in
recession. Mr Rajoy has slashed public spending, restructured Spain’s
banks and cut unemployment and the cost of hiring to the point that
the
OECD recently hailed
Spain as an example to France and Germany.
Mr Rajoy’s problem is
that respect for the political class he represents has been destroyed
by graft and cronyism. Last month dozens of political appointees to
the board of a big banking group bailed out by taxpayers were found
to have run up more than £10 million in expenses on undeclared
credit cards. In Andalusia 51 officials were arrested in a separate
£200 million embezzlement scandal. Thanks to such cases there is a
perception among the foot soldiers of Podemos that austerity has been
inflicted on them by a corrupt elite, rather than championed in their
name by tough but well-intentioned reformers.
Podemos has drawn
support from both left and right. In this respect it bears comparison
with Ukip, but it shares most common ground with the hardline Greek
socialist grouping Syriza. Both parties have harnessed a broad and
deep resentment towards European politics. Both articulate a loathing
of lectures from German central bankers. Both have flirted with
defaulting as a way of dealing with a ballooning national debt.
Such a policy would be
economic suicide. There are plenty of reasons to scrap the euro, but
crashing the eurozone economies with a manufactured debt crisis is
not the way to go about it. The rise of Podemos is a serious rebuke
to Spain’s political establishment, but it does not offer a serious
prospectus for Spain’s future.
In Belgium, where the
unemployment rate is probably 8-10%, there are riots in the streets of Brussels against the austerity regime there. Here in Spain, where
the rate is 24% and the austerity regime just as bad, things are
still relatively quiet and my forecast revolution is yet to start.
But we do have Podemos. I suspect this is no coincidence. Podemos,
I'm guessing, is a creation of the casta, designed to act as a
conduit or lightening rod for unrest. Right now, this seems to be a
successful strategy but we await the results of next year's elections
to see whether or not it's backfired.
An interesting perspective from RTL today. The Berlin Wall - which apparently had nothing to do with Russia, was a chance for world peace. But the West in general and NATO in particular blew this opportunity and are now threatening world peace by surrounding Russia with military might. Oh, and there were no Russian troops sent into the Ukraine yesterday. It's all lies. As susual.
Finally: A cheeky
beggar: The bishop of San Sebastián was yesterday asked by a
Romanian gipsy if she could kiss his hand, Before he had time to
think about this, she'd done so. And in the process relieved him of
his ring. Moral: Beware of Romanian women asking if they can kiss
your ring.
P. S. Apologies for
writing caldo last night when I meant cocido.
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