For the first time since the Madrid train bombings, support for Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and the PSOE party has fallen below that of the opposition. After what has probably been the Socialist government’s most complex fortnight since it came to power 18 months ago, the results of a survey published today by El Mundo suggest that if elections were held in Spain now, the Popular Party would be voted in.
Supporters of Spain’s socialist government argue that Rodriguez Zapatero has had a difficult introduction to government by any standards. Natural crises like the severe drought in Spain and severe forest fires this Summer have presented a challenge to the Environment Ministry.
Problems with immigration, which have been threatening to come to a head for the past 5 years, have finally peaked, constitutional reform has become an issue for the first time in the short history of Spain’s democracy, European funds which financed much of Spain’s development and infrastructure during the 80s and 90s have finally dried up with the entry of needier states into the EU, and the government has had to come to terms with an opposition party which, having never come to terms with or forgiven the Socialists for the result of the 2004 elections, refuses to cooperate with government, even in key issues such as terrorism.
The Socialist government has achieved some important goals during its time in power. The amnesty granted to illegal immigrants last year was a bold attempt to reveal the extent of a growing undercover workforce vital to several sectors, notably agriculture, construction and domestic labor, but mistreated by employers. As a result of the amnesty hundreds of thousands of immigrants, many of whom had been living and working in Spain for years and had children attending Spanish schools, received a contract and are now paying taxes and their employers are paying their national insurance payments.
Housing policies and the new state rental agency mean that many more young people and low-income families will have access to more housing options than before, and increased investment in science and tecnology promises to address at last the fact that Spain invests less in research and new technologies than most of its European partners. Even the Spanish congress has woken up to high-tech.
Relations between the Basque government and national government are at last cordial, after years of back-biting and non-cooperation. Indeed the whole style of government in Spain has changed with policies now being debated rather than dictated to Congress. The Spanish Health Minister seems to be making progress in fighting smoking in Spain, child obesity and high alcohol and drug consumption, and gay marriages in Spain are now a reality. Progress has also been made in dealing with domestic violence in Spain.
However, despite the good things, the Socialist government has failed to provide convincing arguments or policies on several very important issues, and Zapatero will need to make some changes in government if he is to regain the support he needs to follow his first term in power with a second electoral victory.
The government is not handling the issue of Catalan autonomy with the intelligence a subject as sensitive in Spain as constitutional reform requires. It is intriguing – to a non-Spaniard – how the only party with members who opposed a wide-ranging democratic constitution at the beginning of Spanish democracy (PP) now portrays itself as the only true defensor of democratic Spain and its Constitution. And how the party whose members returned from exile to push forward the transition from dictatorship to democracy is now being accused of putting the whole constitution at risk by accommodating Catalan separatist demands. In failing to find the right balance between meeting demands of Catalan separatists in Congress while also addressing the concerns of millions of non-Catalan Spaniards, Rodriguez Zapatero has put his government in a very vulnerable position.
The second big problem Zapatero faces at the moment is how to deal with the entry of Africans desperate to enter Spain and Europe and prepared to risk their lives by climbing over the boder fences dividing Ceuta and Melilla from Morocco. Despite the need to stem the flow of illegal immigrants into Europe, most people in Spain have been moved by the images published in the media and testimonies shown on television of these poor, hopeless Sub-saharians. The solutions implemented by the government have failed to convince many. No-one can feel comfortable seeing buses of crying men, handcuffed to eachother, being ferried out of the border area to no-mans land somewhere on the border of Morocco, where they are reportedly forced to get off the bus and are abandoned with no food or water. With the help of Morocco and Spain’s EU partners, the government must find a more humane and long-term solution to a problem which is not going to disappear.
The Spanish President also needs to speed up the government’s long-promised educational reform (in a recent survey the great majority of Spaniards didn’t know what the Education Minister was called or even what she looked like), improve foreign policy (the day after the German elections last month, Rodriguez Zapatero was the only European leader to congratulate Schroeder on his «victory» and express his satisfaction at the «defeat» of the CDU candidate who, according to German media this morning, is infact going to be Germany’s next president….), provide convincing alternatives to the problem of water distribution in Spain and to improve his image within Spain and abroad if he does not want to be voted out in the next election.
Time will tell……
This was an informative discussion of the present Spanish government’s successes and weaknesses.
I do not understand the African immigrant problem. I suspect the economy and chances for employment are so bad for these people, they have few options other than to try to get to Spain.
Just a thought, has Spain tried to go in with the government of Morroco on economic development? If the economy of Morroco would better support its population, it would seem there would be less pressure on immigration.
Are there other factors than economics involved? So, for example, is there a war going on in Morroco, are people just trying to get to a safer environment?
If the EU would think to admit the Ukraine into the EU, why not Morroco?
Spain and Morocco do have some special trade agreements, but these immigrants aren’t Moroccan anyway. They are from other African countries, and have walked across Morocco to get to the border. They come from poor countries, with no income or food and often with corrupt regimes. And they think they will be able to escape from their impoverished lives if they reach Europe. Morocco isn’t a European country, Ukraine is. Anyway, the problem goes beyond just Morocco. Europe needs to find a way of helping poor African countries move towards economic recovery so that their people can find hope in their own country and don’t have to risk their lives by looking for it elsewhere.
Beatriz seems to express my idea about how European countries should assist Africa.
I would add that there are cautions. Rehashing old colonialist policies would not be any step forward.
Colonialism destroyed Africa and is the main reason why millions of people live in poverty and seek to flee their countries in favor of richer countries. Spain is just the first step on the way for these people. This is why it is a problem for Europe, not just Spain. Great Britain, Portugal, Holland, France, Belgium, Spain, Germany….. all these countries colonialised parts of Africa. Now they need to help to find a solution to the plight of the countries they colonialised and then abandoned.
I recently found this interview with someone who’s tried to study the problem, at:
http://www.signandsight.com/features/408.html
Regardless, the PSOE are a thousand times better than Aznar and the PP. At least Zapatero and the Socialists actually act like they are the government of SPAIN and not the governors of the 51st state of the United States. To see the disgraceful way Aznar sold out his countrymen and kow-towed to the U.S. was enough to make any true Spaniard vomit. Spain will NEVER again be beholden to another country’s interests above its own, certainly not for the ignorant, bloodthirsty philistine Americans. To put Aznar and other Ameri-toadies back in power would be to sign over Spain’s sovereignty to the illiterate mouth-breather Bush and his lackeys. To hell with the PP sellouts.
The Socialist government under ZP have made bad decisions on immigration from the start, even to a point of immigrants being as much of a concern as the Spanish people. I think the worst turn was when they legalized thousands of illegals across the board. At that time the economy was peaking, there were lots of opportunities. Now that the economy has slowed, and probably will not see a peak like before for many years, lots of these immigrants are out of work, but at the sametime are benefiting from a system of social programs that they have not put into. The middle class in Spain is being squeezed to a point of major stress. I think that Spain and the EU should help those outside of their own country but there also needs to be balance. This is a quality not found in the Socialist party.
Anonymous, as far as PSOE being much better than PP…not so sure. Lots of European countries went to Iraq with the US. Not saying it´s right but many did…so that would mean more that 51 states as far as what you were saying. Also, through unions PSOE uses pressure to win votes. They are a good example of liberal fascism…they claim to want the same rights for everyone…but really they want their ideas to prevail and everyone else take a backseat.
Anonymous, Spain is holding other countries´ interest ahead of it´s own now. They are putting pressure of their own people in order to make way for immigrants.