Spain is under attack

Spain, or rather it's government, is under attack from inside and out. With the EU rotational six-month presidency only six weeks in Spanish hands, Prime Minister (or President of the Government if you prefer) José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's popularity sinks below that of Opposition Leader Mariano Rajoy for the first time since the former's reelection two years ago. His party, PSOE, is down in the popularity charts, too; the PP (Partido Popular) leads by over 6 points in the 'if the elections were held today' polls. This in the country's highly politically-polarized media, where statistics tend to reflect the views of the Pied Piper who pays the bills.

In a more personal poll, my e-mails, usually plagued with nonsense messages, are now showing increasingly anti-government stuff sent by well-meaning friends and (virtual) acquaintances of all political shades. (Please stop it!)

Back to Europe. Zapatero may have begun his downward climb -I won't call it a spiral yet- at Davos, the recent annual informal business-political-economic-etc. summit held in Swtzerland. He stood out as the only head of government present who had no English. As I said, not a good start for the President of a European Union where the lingua franca is English among the 27 countries, and more languages, that make it up.

Recent upheaval about the financial situation of Greece, has brought about a non-Spanish media frenzy that proposes a domino effect: if Greece falls into (officially admitted) bankruptcy, Spain, Portugal and Ireland will be next. And bang goes the Euro.

In the meantime, Zapatero's Number Two, María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, who stands in for her Europe-gallavanting boss more often than not, appears ever more haggard trying to persuade the inquisitive press that everything will be alright, not unlike a distracted mother kissing a grazed knee that will later be discovered to need painful surgery.

Today's Economist publishes an article by Charlemagne entitled: 'Old Spanish practices - Spain now leads the European Union, but not by example' (illustrated by Peter Schrank above) that includes the sentence, "Editorials across the EU have mocked the idea of Mr Zapatero advising Europe on economic recovery." And my good friend Sancho came up with 'Is Zapatero un cateto?' just the other day. Judge for yourself, but let's not forget that there at least two sides to every story.

(c) Alexander Bewick 2010