Spain's
Zapatero is overturning
one applecart after another
By
Jonathan
Power
TFF Associate
since 1991
Comments to JonatPower@aol.com
January 3rd, 2006
LONDON - Spain's Socialist
government continues its heady run of the bulls
overturning one sacred applecart after another. A few
months ago it was legislation to permit gay marriages,
the third country in Europe to take this step, and a cold
slap on the face for Spain's Catholic heritage. Now there
is the cold turkey of stopping the smoking habits of
Spain's bar-visiting populace who smoke more than any
other nation in Europe except Greece.
Prime Minister José Zapatero
who surprised all the pundits by winning the election
nearly two years ago and who had no previous experience
of government and precious little of leadership appears
to have the all confidence of an experienced
matador.
Last week he coined a new phrase to
mark his philosophy of government- "social patriotism",
which presumably means that Spaniards should hold their
heads high as their country bucks the United States over
Iraq, its economy steams ahead and it pioneers a raft of
new social legislation, not to mention offering a new
deal of devolved government to the Basques and the
Catalans despite accusations from the nationalists that
he is dismembering the country.
Well, a majority of Spaniards do
appear to be holding their heads high, but it is a thin
majority and the reaction is strong. The defeated Popular
Party shows no intention of playing opposition sotto
voce. Their approach is a barrage of counter attack that
makes many commentators queasy, reminding them of the
bitter divide between socialist and conservative that
precipitated the civil war. Former prime minister
José María Aznar still insists that he did
not deceive the nation when in the hours after the Al
Qaeda bombing of the Madrid railway station he insisted
it was the work of the homegrown Basque group, ETA. Even
though his ploy backfired and turned voters against him,
Aznar and his colleagues still maintain that they were
right and that the Socialists won the election by means
of subterfuge. The fact that hardly anyone in the
intelligence services or the police supports Aznar's
position on this seems to do little to slow his party's
onslaught.
Rather than drawing back and
hunkering down after this shaming episode the new leader
of the PP, Mariano Rajoy, fires off rhetorical bullets
like a machine gun: "In one year you [Zapatero]
have turned the whole country belly up…. You have
filled the streets with sectarianism. You have given new
life to the moribund ETA…You have betrayed the
dead."
Paddy Woodworth, the foreign
correspondent of the Irish Times who covers Spanish
politics with a perspicacity that others do not match,
observes. "It is tempting to contrast Zapatero with Don
Quixote…..he has a strong tendency to act as though
he were unaware of the legacy of the first transition
[to democracy on the death of the dictator, Franco,
in 1975]. He repeatedly ignores the implicit and
explicit limits that period set on political
change."
Zapatero is staking his premiership
on resolving once and for all Spain's regional crisis- in
the Basque country where ETA has long been fighting a
terrorist war if not for independence at least for a
degree of autonomy that comes near to it- and in
Catalonia, Spain's economic powerhouse, whose present day
political leadership is demanding that it be considered a
separate nation, (rather similar to Scotland's position
in the UK today, although with more financial
autonomy).
The PP is averse to such
constitutional change and nationalist sentiment is strong
in Spain, not only on the right but across the center and
even on some parts of the left. Zapatero's willingness to
countenance a high degree of autonomy- but not
independence- and a preparedness to negotiate face to
face if ETA renounce violence has overturned not just the
convictions of the previous government but that of
Spain's first socialist prime minister, Felipe
González, who when in power waged a 'dirty war'
against ETA, and indeed Zapatero's own stance before he
came to office.
For now Zapatero's star is on the
ascendancy. In regional and local elections the PP
continues to lose ground. Rajoy's catastrophist rhetoric
has not turned the tide of popular opinion, although it
may catch fire if the Catalonians push too far too fast
and if ETA doesn't grab the olive branch offered and
returns to its old murderous habits (it hasn't killed
anyone for two years, although occasionally it explodes a
bomb).
Zapatero has put himself out on a
limb and a false or precipitous move by ETA or the
Catalonians could make him look as naïve and callow
as many originally judged him to be.
Copyright © 2006 By
JONATHAN POWER
I can be reached by
phone +44 7785 351172 and e-mail: JonatPower@aol.com
Get
free articles &
updates
Follow this
link to read about - and order - Jonathan Power's book
written for the
40th Anniversary of
Amnesty International
"Like
Water on Stone - The Story of Amnesty
International"
Här kan
du läsa om - och köpa - Jonathan Powers bok
på svenska
"Som
Droppen Urholkar
Stenen"
Tell a friend about this article
Send to:
From:
Message and your name
 
|