Spanish conservatives win absolute majority in Spain’s national elections

THE YEARS HAVE PASSED...BUT THE DOGS ARE THE SAME ONLY THEIR COLLARS HAVE CHANGED'

So, as widely anticipated, the Spanish conservative party (the PP – Partido Popular) has won an overwhelming majority of seats in parliament after yesterday’s General Election in Spain.  Meanwhile, the Spanish socialist party (the PSOE – Partido Socialista Obrero Español) has been badly defeated and has finally been punished by the electorate for its gross negligence in mishandling the Spanish economy over the past seven years.

The new prime minister of Spain will now be Mariano Rajoy and he will take over on the 20^th December 2011 and walk into one of the least envious jobs in Europe because, somehow, he has to prevent Spain from going into meltdown.

Mariano Rajoy

Certainly, the sheer scale of the problems facing Mariano Rajoy as Prime Minister (Presidente) of Spain are daunting in the extreme and I suspect that any ‘popularity’ is illusory and will be brief.  Indeed, like so many general elections, the reality is that the existing Spanish governing party (the socialists) lost the election rather than the Spanish conservatives winning it by merit and popularity.

In truth, in Spain there was no other viable alternative to the Spanish electorate than the conservative party in Spain – a point made by the Spanish Indignado Movement, who have stressed repeatedly that the ‘system’ does not work, as effectively the national Spanish government is only ever drawn from one of two parties.

Indeed, as the Indignados state, there was therefore no real choice and I am reminded of the Spanish saying about political parties and politicians: ‘los perros son los mismos, solo han cambiado sus collares’.  This translates as ‘the dogs are the same, only their collars have changed’, a wonderful expression that shows how (justifiably) world-weary and sceptical the Spanish are about their politicians.

Spanish economy – meltdown?

Protests in Spain – is democracy in Spain in danger?

Of course, rather like the UK, the Spanish conservative party is perceived to be able to manage the Spanish economy better than the Spanish socialist party.  So, I think they were the obvious choice for most of the Spanish electorate who are now more than aware of how profound are the problems of the Spanish economy.  That said, it has taken a few years for them to realise the true horror of the crisis that started with the property bust in 2007.  Certainly, for a couple of years, the Spanish economic downturn was considered as no more than a temporary dip, before the economy would power forth again… a fat chance, to coin a phrase, and a delusion brought on by far too many years of easy money!

The question is what can Mariano Rajoy and the new conservative government of Spain do to reduce the horrendous unemployment in Spain (currently around 22%), relieve the property crisis and straighten out the debt laden banks?

Politics in Spain

Politics and democracy in Spain

Frankly, apart from tinkering around the edges of the economic problems in Spain, I can see no easy or quick solutions – despite those being required with the very greatest urgency.

As I mentioned in a previous article, whilst clearly severe cuts and austerity measures will be undertaken they are the ‘easy’ part of sorting out the problems.  However, as any businessman knows, you can only cut so much of anything before you run out of things to cut and start to damage more than you are trying to fix.  Meanwhile, really clever and creative solutions are needed to regenerate growth, reduce unemployment, satisfy a restless population and gain tax receipts.

Does Mariano Rajoy have ‘really clever and creative solutions’?

Well, no-one knows because Mariano Rajoy and the conservatives in Spain were exceptionally careful not to reveal much about what they would do to rectify Spain’s problems during the Spanish election campaign.

The trouble is that if the new government of Spain does have genuine solutions then most people will, I suspect, be amazed.  Most hope so (obviously) and sentiment will rise in Spain for a short time based upon this optimism.  But, I fear, that naïve ‘optimism’ is all that it will be and that the structural problems of the Spanish economy are so serious that no short term solutions exist – only a period of increasing (and frightening) hardship with potentially severe social unrest to be expected.

Nick Snelling – Culture Spain

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Spanish economy – meltdown?

Protests in Spain – is democracy in Spain in danger?

Politics and democracy in Spain

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