THE SPANISH PURGATORY

What sins such serious have committed the Spanish citizens for to have to live with a hard penance, that neither can understand, nor comprehend, nor, much less, deserve? How is it possible that a people who, through the ages, has accredited values ​​and a high capacity for sacrifice, worthy of better fortune, is immersed in a kind of quagmire in which every day looks more and more sunken? Who have been the architects of this nonsense and what the instruments which they have served for this? How and when could we get rid of this punishment and regain normalcy that we never should have lost, of manner we can face the future with the confidence and enthusiasm which is necessary by to traverse the already difficult path of life?

I am sure that many Spanish people, especially those to whom the crisis is hitting harder, are often doing such questions, to which, in many cases, they haven't response. How can we explain to those families who have no minimum necessary resources to adequately feed their children, or who are about to be on the street for to have losing your job and not being able to meet their mortgage commitments, which all this is due to a crisis in which his unique role is summarized only  in to be victims? The question is not easy, and, the most serious, is that, having lost confidence in those who were chosen precisely to find solutions, and that, ultimately, have become the main problem, there are no other alternatives that, or resignation to their rights, or mobilization. Given that the first represents the whole submission, with acceptance and abandoned to their fate, it is normal that is chosen the second: manifestations in the streets to demand for justice and what they are entitled by law. When there is nothing left to lose, it is easier to take any type of risk, and, here, and now, are beginning to give these conditions.

In Spain, after Franco's death, which ended a long period that some, not all, have described as a black part of our history, was started a transition to democracy, with a state model based on a parliamentary monarchy, that was met with very high expectations by the vast majority of citizens, and from which was expected great progress in terms of freedoms and of social welfare. Since the constitutional period, that led to the drafting of the Spanish Constitution of 1978, to the present day, in which we are living the X Legislature, that started in December 2011 with the formation of the new Parliament, after the election that gave the absolute majority to Popular Party, Spain has gone, like many other countries around us, through different phases in which stages of light have alternated with others of shadows, but, in no case, had reached a situation as worrying as the current. The financial crisis, that began in 2008, to which followed the bursting of the housing bubble, followed of great amount of jobs lost, with a sharp rise of unemployment, that the government did not knew identify, not even subsequently to react, has led to ruin and despair to thousands and thousands of families.

The measures that the new government has launched to try to brake the devastating effects of the crisis, based only  in spending cuts, without other complementary measures for the economic recovery, only have served to destroy even more the already weak business sector, that has fallen to 2002 levels, while unemployment has risen to an alarming 26.3% (data as of February 2013), surpassed only by Greece, with 26.4%; representing a value rate 5 times higher than in Germany (5.4%), and more than twice that of all 27 EU countries (10.9%). At present, in which the European Union has reached the amount of 500 million of inhabitants, Spain contributes to this population with just over 9%, while its contribution to the level of unemployment is over 30%; or, put another thus: of every three unemployed in the EU, one is Spanish. With these data, and with the threat of a bailout, not yet completely ruled out, with the example of Cyprus, which, among other harsh adjustment measures, has come to question the safety of savings deposited in financial institutions, and the forecasts of GDP that the international observers are estimating for our country: a contraction of about 1.5% for 2013 and a growth not exceeding 0.8% by the next year 2014, when employment has never been created below of 2%, the future, short and medium term, is quite discouraging. If already is a pipe dream the job creation in an economy without growth, even more it is when this situation is aggravated by the effect of a rate of inflation that does not yield: the dreaded stagflation.

While it is true that the crisis is not unique to Spain, so is that our country is at a disadvantage with most countries of our environment for to overcome it. Our state structure, based on autonomous communities, an unknown model halfway between a central state and a federal system, aside of establish important differences between the different autonomous citizens and encourage nationalist sentiment, not shown, in terms of efficiency, suitable for provide solutions; on the contrary, by sheer megalomania of politicians, with the creation of unnecessary superstructures as if they were mini-states, has become a monument to wastefulness without control, absolutely unaffordable for our income levels, plus to serve of broth culture for corruption. Apart of autonomous administration, if we descend to the local government, at the municipal level, the issue is no less serious: we have 8,116 municipalities, 5,000 of which have fewer than 1,000 inhabitants, of which over 1,000 are not over 100; all these, of course, with their respective corporate structure, plus of other figures such as associations, counties, metropolitan areas and territorial entities. In short, a gigantic network that, for a population of about 47 million people, has become in the more complex administrative structure of Europe, exceeding by more than 20 times  the currently that has Britain, despite having over 60 million inhabitants, and this, just to give an example.

The government led by Zapatero, who was the first to deal with this exceptional crisis, perhaps by not properly assessing its scope and impact, plus many ideological pressures and constraints arising from the relationship of forces available in the Parliament, has not been able to implement measures similar to those taken in other countries, like Germany, for example, to mitigate its effects, limiting itself to purely conjunctural actions arising from the pressures that were coming from Brussels. With the arrival of the PP government, with an absolute majority that gave it all the ability to act, were reborn the hope of  that we will begin to see some solutions that could represent a turning point in the free fall that we were experiencing. After over a year of Legislature, and after of have breached almost all his campaign promises, with contradictory performances to the dogmatic principles that had always been advocating in their speeches in opposition, using always the excuse of having received a poisoned legacy, disappointment has returned to settle in most of the citizens who they had given their trust to this political party, even among many of his staunchest supporters. All of the Rajoy's parliamentary eloquence, from which had done so much ostentation in their confrontations with the previous government, is becoming a shortage of arguments typical of those who can only play defense.

The most important decisions that, until now, has taken the Rajoy government to channel the situation, while trying to meet, the same time, the demands of Brussels, have only come for to put even more load on the backs of workers and pensioners spanish, without, for the moment, can be appreciate any signs of improvement in economic sectors, nor will slow the destruction of jobs. The continuous declarations of Rajoy, based on the result that expect to get with your recipes, with  predicting a brighter future, already convince no one. In this context, it is not surprising that citizens, tired of not seeing light on the horizon, harrased to politicians with some events ad hoc, such as the escraches. Not is that I agree with this procedure, nor try to justify it, especially if they exceed certain limits, but, when it drives people to extreme situations, the answer is usually always the desperate.

Meanwhile does not performed a real and profound reform of the Administration and public services, providing them with a size, structure, organization and functioning appropiate, that meets the stringent needs of our society, by covering the most basic objeticos to obtain the necessary results, to the lower cost, we only will be giving sticks of blind. Is in this field, where still  remains many things by to do,  where we can get the most significant savings, much higher, and, of course, much fairer than the procedure of extract the money from the pockets of citizens. The crisis we are experiencing, although long for all, only be temporary for those who can adapt;  the rest, like the natural process of selection of species, only will survive just enough to leave evidence of their existence.

In these times when the citizens has lost all confidence in the institutions, with a totally discredited political class and continually under suspicion, affected by the continued corruption cases that have been uncovering, where nor the royal family can escapes of  the scandals, with a very worrying drift  political and economic, the situation can not be fixed with a small adjustments, but with a profound debate on the state model. Is clearly that no one can already save us from passing through purgatory, but we have to avoid, at all costs, that force us to descend to hell.

C. Diaz Fdez

April 2013