Europe’s Rising Fear of Upheaval in Spain
After just over three and a half years of “radical” market reforms Spain is now a lean, fit economic machine – according to the Financial Times.
Despite a few minor blemishes, such as a 22% official unemployment rate and 50% youth unemployment, the Spanish Premier Mariano Rajoy’s economic record is not only laudable, it’s one that the governments of other crisis-hit economies should follow:
The Rajoy government’s courageous economic reforms, helped by ECB action, have allowed Spain to defy the once widespread prediction that it would remain Europe’s economic laggard. Its turnaround is a lesson — and not just for Greece — that remaining in the Eurozone does not condemn a nation to economic failure.
The FT is not alone in this assessment. At yesterday’s joint press conference with Rajoy at the German chancellery, Angela Merkel said that even Germany, Europe’s industrial powerhouse and financial sugar daddy, had a thing or two to learn from the example set by Spain. Unsurprisingly, Merkel failed to go into any detail, but she did give Rajoy a ringing endorsement:
Spain’s path is moving forward, upward and many people will take that into account come election time.
Politics as Usual
As is the case with just about everything connected to Europe’s slowly unraveling economy, Merkel’s intervention, like the FT’s, was wholly politically motivated – something Merkel as good as acknowledged when she stated that Germany has a keen interest in ensuring that Spain’s “economic progress” continues.
Given that recent opinion polls suggest that no single party will gain sufficient votes in December’s elections to govern Spain single-handedly, as Rajoy’s People’s Party has done with ruthless efficiency for the last three and a half years, the German chancellor could end up being disappointed.
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