Spain
After the fiesta
A European success story; but it is time for José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero to step outside his comfort zone
GROUCHO MARX got it wrong when he said that he didn’t care to belong to any club that would have him as a member. There are in fact few things in life so wounding to self-esteem as to be excluded from a gathering where you think you rightly belong.
In an attempt to avoid such a fate, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Spain’s prime minister, has cast dignity aside and importuned all and sundry with a request to be invited to a conference on November 15th to discuss reforms to the international financial system. The brainchild of France’s Nicolas Sarkozy and of America’s George Bush, the conference will be attended by the G8 economies and 12 large developing countries. Spain belongs to neither group.
Whether or not the conference proves to be important, Mr Zapatero is right that he deserves to be there. Spain is the world’s ninth-largest economy at market exchange rates, or twelfth when measured by purchasing power (making it bigger than Canada, a G8 member). It is the world’s seventh-biggest foreign investor.
It has two of the 20 biggest banks, and it has made a good job of regulating its banking system (see our special report). Like the United States, Britain and Ireland, Spain has seen a runaway housing boom turn to bust over the past year. Unlike them, none of its banks has yet had to be bailed out. Indeed, Banco Santander has been shovelling up banking roadkill in Britain and the United States.
So Spain has something to say in any discussion about global finance. Its non-invitation may owe something to Mr Bush’s puerile sulk at Mr Zapatero over his abrupt withdrawal of troops from Iraq in 2004. But if Spain is too easily overlooked, it is partly Mr Zapatero’s fault.
He is one of Europe’s few successful politicians of the left. Underestimated by his opponents at home, he was re-elected to a second term earlier this year. But he has shown little interest in the world beyond Spain. In this parochialism he faithfully represents a country where decentralisation has brought benefits but narrowed political horizons. That does not reduce its potential cost.
Jueves, 26 de noviembre
Grupo Cenyt
Juan Carlos Ureta
Luis Llopis Herbas
Jesús Pérez
Ramón Tamames
Luis C. Sánchez
