Spain's
unemployment rate has officially reached 27%. It's hard to imagine he
needed telling but Brussels is reported to have 'ordered' President
Rajoy to 'take urgent action' to reduce it. As to what this might be – when
Brussels is also dictating austerity – is hard to say. I doubt Sr
Rajoy has any more idea than I do. He's preparing to make a major
announcement on Friday re (reduced?)pensions so I doubt he's worrying
about the job rate right now.
The
other big number today was Spain's population. This has fallen for
the first time on record. In
part, this is due to the departure of some 206,000 of the 4 million
immigrants who came here during the carpetbagger years. The outflow
can only grow, which might well reduce the unemployment rate.
But
it's not all negatives: Here's a valiant attempt by The Local to
identify the silver linings hidden deep inside La Crisis, now
in its 6th year.
And here's some
genuine good news - The minimum age for marriage in Spain has been
raised from 14 to 16 as part of government plans to combat child
abuse and exploitation. The Social Services minister added that the
government also proposes to revise the age of sexual consent from the
current 13 years. Not before time.
The
phrase 'Brand Spain' has appeared in articles several times over the
last month or three. And today it appeared on the first page of what
turned out to be a special El País section on the subject of
Spain's image abroad. Hard to see why this would be aimed at Spanish
readers, but there you go. By coincidence, the findings are out this
week of an international poll on 'Brand Spain'. In Germany, it seems, half of the
locals don't trust Spaniards, while nearly as
many think they're lazy. These are much higher numbers than in the
mid 90s. It wasn't all bad news, though - Only 20% of Chinese thought
Spain was corrupt, compared to 48% of Germans.
Talking
of corruption . . . Hat tip to Lenox for this wonderful quote from a
Spanish politician which rather blows the gaffe - 'Politics
isn't just about corruption. It's also about public service'. You
couldn't make it up. Nor could you be more honest.
I
wrote ten days ago that senior government members, in characterising
the escraches
as 'pure Naziism,' were evincing a peculiar concept of both democracy
and Naziism. Here's IberoSphere
expanding on this view, opening with:- Leading
Spanish conservatives are comparing recent anti-eviction
demonstrations with Hitler’s Germany. This betrays a poor grasp of
history and weak political acumen. Couldn't
agree more.
My
community is changing from propane to natural gas. A couple of
representatives of the new company came round today to calculate
exactly what savings I will make. Or they would have done if neither
of them had had a calculator. I lent them mine and we proceeded to
work our way through at least 40 pages, which involved around 9
signatures from me. Plus photocopies of my bank details and my
Residents' Card. I wonder if anyone back at the office will notice
this expired over 2 years ago.
Tomorrow
I plan to present my thoughts on the achievements and
dis-achievements of the EU/Euro. For now, I'll just report that 72%
of Spaniards now say they dislike the EU, which is an astonishing number
compared with 6 or 7 years ago. Though some of us back then were
predicting things would change. That's even more than in the UK, by
the way. But who can blame them?
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