Dawn

Dawn

Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Well, my visitor and I were successful today in getting the Pontevedra branch of Banco Santander both to give him some cash and to arrange a transfer from his account up in Monforte de Lemos. But it took us well over an hour and it will need the obligatory follow-up visit tomorrow to complete the copious paperwork. Today’s joke from Monforte was that they couldn’t do anything in response to my friend’s communications from Ireland because they didn’t have his signature on file. Which didn’t quite fit with the fact he’d initiated transfers from a Huelva branch on previous visits. Nor did it explain why they hadn’t replied to any of his letters and emails.

But, anyway, the hour it all took gave me another opportunity to witness the Byzantine processes of a Spanish bank. These included the teller taking a photocopy of my friend’s passport, faxing it to Monforte, calling someone there and then asking us to wait until the backlog in their machine could be cleared so the fax could be retrieved and read and a phone call made back to Pontevedra to confirm my friend could have his money. Quite why his account book and his passport weren’t sufficient is beyond me. Especially as he's red-haired and has a patch over one eye.

What really caught my eye, though, were the antics of a teller who arrived at her desk when there was a line of fifteen people waiting at the only window which was open, faffed around for five minutes or more, stuck up a notice on her side of the screen, faffed around for a few more minutes and then disappeared for half an hour. After she’d returned, she did a bit more faffing before finally condescending to deal with some of the long-suffering customers. The sign, by the way, advised that – during next week’s fiesta – the bank will only be open for three hours a day, between 9.30 and 12.30. Perhaps she was already in training for these reduced hours.

But, on a higher plane, The Economist magazine has declared that “After procrastination and paranoia, it is high time for some prime-ministerial leadership in Spain, and Mr Zapatero looks to be out of his depth.” This was, unfortunately, in an article available only to subscribers but here’s a resumé of it from Europa Press, translated by Google, with a few revisions by me . . . 

The British weekly The Economist believes that the Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, is currently "on the ropes" and must "juggle" to stay in power until the end of his term, pressed by budget deficit problems and the pressures of Catalan and Basque nationalists. However, it admits that Zapatero "is changing his attitudes and started to defend positions that "one does not expect from a socialist. "

In an article entitled 'The juggling Zapatero', the magazine notes in its latest issue that the Spanish president "came to be regarded as a political magician whose sleight of hand distracted from the problems of his country" . "However", it continues, "now the circus skill needed by the Spanish Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is that of a tightrope-walker."

"The summer holidays, the victory of Spain in the World Cup and the positive results in the bank stress tests have allowed for some calm amidst the storms that enveloped the country when the markets turned their eyes from Greece to Iberia" writes the newspaper.

"However, Zapatero must now juggle if he wants to stay in power until the end of his second term in 2012," it continues. "For the economy to survive, it must satisfy investors who have bought Spanish debt. And for the government to survive, it must satisfy the Catalan and Basque nationalists who support his minority government," it warns.

According to 'The Economist', the two immediate challenges for Zapatero will be the debate on the State Budget and the Catalan regional elections, both scheduled for autumn.

As regards the budget debate, the paper argues that, should he lose the support of the Far Left and the Catalan nationalist parties, the president will be at the mercy of the six members of the Basque Nationalist Party, which will use this advantage to try to get a number of concessions and the right to "create Basque sports teams" or the ability to "hold referendums in two small enclaves that the PNV considers to be Basque"

Additionally, according to the British weekly, the Convergence and Union (CiU) Party has a good chance of unseating the socialist government in Cataluña, which "involves adjustments in the political balance elsewhere, especially in Madrid." The president of the PP, Mariano Rajoy, wants CiU, which has been critical of Zapatero's lukewarm reforms warm, help to overthrow the government," the report added.

According to The Economist, "there are indications that the Spanish prime minister is changing his attitude. "In a revealing interview with El País on 25 July, Zapatero acknowledged that the markets had taught him a lesson" and even said that "on 9 May he had stayed up all night waiting for the opening of the Nikkei, while the European finance ministers reached an agreement to avoid a severe sovereign debt crisis on the Continent." 

"This is not the kind of comment one would expect from a socialist," said the weekly. In any case, admits The Economist, "it is unlikely that Zapatero will put forward new proposals until after the general strike on September 29, called by the two main unions."

Meanwhile, it’s August. And absolutely nothing ever happens in this month. Barring the occasional assassination of an Austrian Archduke.

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