Spain: A Failing State?
by Eduardo del Buey
Spain: A Failing State?
The tragic weather disaster this week claiming hundreds of lives in several parts of Spain has underscored the venality and basic evil of Spain’s two major political parties.
The massive flooding that has destroyed a good part of Valencia and other cities took place without the regional government’s warning the populace in advance of the impending disaster due to its mismanagement of the autonomous region’s disaster relief mechanisms.
The region’s ruling Conservative Partido Popular (PP) government refused to issue an immediate request to socialist federal government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to respond immediately to the emergency, preferring to hide its incompetence behind a veneer of self-sufficiency and make the national government appear to be the culprit.
While this may have been justifiable under Spain’s federal constitution and defensible under the rules governing the separation of powers, it met with widespread public indignation.
Rather than recognize the magnitude of the disaster and its impact on thousands of victims, the Sanchez government decided to hide behind constitutional niceties and publicly announce his that his government would only provide assistance if formally requested by regional authorities.
His defence minister prohibited military and police officials from coming to the aid of victims and refused to permit firefighters from neighboring Spanish cities as well as volunteers from France from going to the affected regions to help with search and recovery operations.
Indeed, one member of the ruling Socialist Party’s parliamentary group said that legislators were not there to assist in flood control.
Meanwhile, parliament spent the day of the tragedy consolidating the central government’s control over the state television and radio broadcaster and raising taxes.
Fiddling for its own interests while Rome burnt.
When King Felipe VI announced his intention to send his military guard and security personnel to the region to help in operations, he was overruled by Sanchez.
The King then used the only avenue open to him – the bully pulpit.
He had the power to embarrass the government and decided to summon Sanchez to the palace to “discuss” the ongoing situation.
While no public record concerning the meeting has been issued, immediately after the royal summons Sanchez announced that the military would be dispatched to the region to assist with operations. – leading me to conclude that the King read Mr. Sanchez the riot act.
However, when the King visited the affected region yesterday, he was met with shouts of “murderer” and pelted with garbage.
Sanchez’s political maneuvering left the King vulnerable to accusations of complicity in the mismanagement when he remains the only credible institution in Spain’s political structure.
Why would Sanchez act in this way?
Sanchez seeks to tarnish anyone else with blame and deflect from his own gross mismanagement of the situation.
In my view, he wanted to change the political conversation of the past year that has focused on a number of major corruption cases affecting his government and his immediate family by making the autonomous government of Valencia appear guilty of mismanagement and political chicanery.
If that means tarnishing the monarchy en passant, so be it.
He has failed in his personal and political objectives, and he has failed Spaniards everywhere though his venality and personal greed.
Spaniards are at a loss about what comes next.
The opposition conservative Partido Popular is incapable of winning an absolute majority in Parliament even though it has the most seats of any party.
Its Francoist ties in the eyes of many and its focus on Spain as a unitary state makes it impossible for the PP to form a ruling coalition with the various nationalist parties that hold the balance of power in parliament.
And Sanchez’ willingness to sell Spanish unity to all and sundry to remain in power leaves at any cost leaves the nationalists holding a level of power far beyond their strength in parliament.
The real losers are Spaniards who appear to have no viable political options to affect change any time soon.
This will leave Spain as a failing state led by political leaders who govern for their own personal or parochial interests rather than the common good.
La historia del XIX, XX repite nuevamente lo ocurrido en España. Necesitamos analíticos políticos con visión critica constructiva y bien informados que colaboren a cambiar el ritmo de los acontecimientos. Los sistemas impuestos no conducen a un cambio regenerador. Es muy triste hacia donde caminamos sin perspectiva de una oposición y un lider con capacidad de enmienda vs cambio
When politicians put their petty interests above the well-being of a Nation, they should be sanctioned by the people. In this case, Sanchez seems to have manipulated his King, a great setback for Spanish democracy.