Wednesday,
March 19, 2008
The
ANNOTICO Report
There is a
well-established pecking order of prejudice in western
Europe. The British
look down on the French,
the French
look down on the Italians,
the Italians
look down on the Spanish,
the Spanish
look down on the Portuguese -
and everybody fears and ridicules the Germans.
But
the Spanish have upset this xenophobic hierarchy.
The
Spanish prime minister, Josi Luis Zapatero, has had the luxury of "identity
" politics, has shown little interest in either foreign policy
or economics. That is all about to change.
The Financial Times
By Gideon Rachman
March 17 2008
There is a
well-established pecking order of prejudice in western
Europe. The British look down on the French, the French look down on the
Italians, the Italians look down on the Spanish, the Spanish look down on the
Portuguese and everybody fears and
ridicules the Germans.
But the Spanish
have upset this xenophobic hierarchy.
These cultural
changes reflect changes in the real world. In 2006
Spanish
governance also looks like a model of staid predictability compared with the
frenetic instability of
Next months
Italian elections look likely to lead to the fall of a leftwing coalition,
after just one term in office, and the return
to power of Silvio Berlusconi a flamboyant tycoon, who is regarded as a sinister buffoon in much of the rest of
The Spanish prime
ministers low international profile reflects his intense focus on his own
country. Mr Zapatero is an
unusual political leader, in that he does not seem to be particularly
interested in either foreign policy or economics. In his first term in office,
he specialised in identity politics encouraging the Spanish to re-examine the
countrys civil war; legalising gay marriage and
fast-track divorce; pushing through gender-equality laws. If there were a prize
for the most politically-correct prime minister in
When the going is
good, there is plenty of time for identity politics. But the Spanish miracle is
about to be put to the test, in ways that will demand that Mr
Zapatero displays a more conventional set of
political interests and skills
Like all
politicians, the Spanish prime minister will have been buoyed by the ultimate
accolade re-election. But this
months election might have been one that it was better to lose.
Economic troubles will test the stability of
the new Spain. The economic boom has sucked in an
extraordinary number of immigrants from
The conservative
oppositions unsuccessful attempt to use illegal immigration against Mr Zapatero during the election
suggests that the Spanish people are so far reasonably comfortable with rapid social
change.
But the bitter
tone of Spanish politics suggests the opposite a society that remains deeply divided.
William Chislett, author of a new book on the
country, Spain: Going Places (Telefsnica),
observes that parliamentary life has become vicious over the past
four years.
Some of this
viciousness stems from the Zapatero governments
deliberate re-opening of debate about the legacy of the Spanish civil war. The
other source of poison is the continuing argument over the terrorist bombings
of March 2004, which killed 191
The conservative Popular party blamed its defeat in the 2004 elections, which
came just a few days after the
The fact that Mr Zapatero has now won
re-election may force the conservatives to recognise
the governments legitimacy without further equivocation. That, in turn,
could help drain some of the bitterness from Spanish politics. If Mr Zapatero is now compelled to
concentrate on the economy, rather than social issues, that too may help to normalise and banalise Spanish
politics.
But, in other
ways, Mr Zapateros
second term looks like being much tougher than his first. For the past 20
years, successive Spanish prime ministers have been able to enjoy the domestic
and international benefits of presiding over a national renaissance. Now, like
the Italians before them, the Spanish are about to discover that la dolce
vita does not last forever.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/12dd0ea0-f443-11dc-aaad-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1
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