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NOT MY FAULT!

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Staff Reporter / 2010-02-19 10:26:50

Zapatero blames press for state of nation

Spain. The only economy in Western Europe still in recession. Unemployment has risen to more than 4 million, and there are fears that Spain could end up with a financial crisis worse than Greece's. But now Spain now has someone to blame – the press. Yes, the Spanish intelligence services are investigating the role of British and American media in causing financial confusion and turmoil. This follows claims from Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's socialist government that speculators and newspaper editorial writers had launched a concerted attack but with out any apparent examples to show anyone.

One national Spanish newspaper said the country's National Intelligence Centre (CNI) was investigating a series of "speculative attacks" against the Spanish economy amid bond market jitters about the country's growing national debt. "The (CNI's) economic intelligence division … is investigating whether investors' attacks and the aggressiveness of some Anglo-Saxon media are driven by market forces and challenges facing the Spanish economy – or whether there is something more behind this campaign," El País said.

It seems that the Spanish government isn’t prepared to hold its hands up and admit it got anything wrong and would rather point the finger at another establishment – us, the press. In the UK, the Financial Times has been critical of the government's handling of the Spanish economy in recent weeks. It has been joined by the Economist (another respected financial publication) and other publications which have all questioned Zapatero's economic management.

However, the replacement of the peseta with the euro played its part in the boom years that generated price rises for houses that just could not be sustained. The trouble is the higher you climb, the further you fall and Spain’s unemployment rate of almost 20% bears evidence of the problems the country now faces. But how the press can be to blame for that I can’t quite work out. Spain has now endured seven continuous quarters of negative growth. Even the government sees the economy shrinking further this year. Across the country, ordinary Spaniards are struggling to adjust. A local man in Santa Pola set up business just five years ago and enjoyed some good times before everything cam crashing down. He used to provide building products to tradesmen but now things are so quiet because houses are not selling he works alone, as and when work comes in.

The bubble burst for Spain two years ago, the same time as the global crisis struck and Zapatero on his colleagues might do better to look inside their own cabinet. 

 

Tags: Zapatero, Recession, Press