Local elections give Rajoy the jitters!

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Tomorrow...a Sunday.....sees local elections in two Spanish provinces; Galicia and the Basque country, who will both be voting for their regional governments.  The results will be watched eagerly, not just by Mariano Rajoy, a Galician himself, but by many across Europe in the wake of yesterday's announcement by Angela Merkel that direct re-capitalisation of the (many) Spanish banks who are teetering on the brink of collapse will not happen immediately, if at all.

A worried Mariano Rajoy.

Spain is a country in crisis.  To live here is to be party to the desperation of the people.  Hope is now a dirty word as the nation sinks deeper into crisis and, to be honest, it's very worrying.

The Spanish are a people who do not like change and even when the rest of the world was cowering beneath the falling debris of the of the economic crisis many Spaniards were happy to ignore the signs and carry on as before.  But not anymore.

Spain is changing.  And it's changing rapidly.  But not, I would suggest, for the better in the short-term.  Things are going to get a lot worse before they start to improve.

Unemployment in Galicea is at 21% (as it happens lower than the national average) and is rising every month.  Rajoy, once the local hero, is fast becoming Rajoy the embarrassment, even though he may just hang onto power in the region as a result of the popularity of the PP candidate Alberto Núñez Feijóo (below).  Even so, there is expected to be a rise in the prominence of local nationalists which have a knock-on effect with further elections next month in other provinces.

 Alberto Núñez Feijóo

In the Basque country the situation is more complex, with the new radical nationalist coalition, EH-Bildu expecting to gain substantial support in their push for Basque separatism.  A year ago Eta, the Basque terrorist movement 'officially' renounced violence and since that time the radicals have moved towards a more political and democratic process with EH-Bildu (which actually means 'Basque country gather') blazing the way.

EH-Bildu did not take part in the 2009 elections (because they were formed after this time) and might be expected to gain considerable local influence after tomorrow elections.  Polls indicate that unemployment will be the key issue in an area where the rural vote has always been majorly important.  But even here it beggars belief that the radicals do not offer solutions to the problems for the electorate to mull over but instead spend their campaigning time slagging off the other parties and their mismanagement of the economy, employment, etc.

Heaven forbid that they might offer a new way of looking at things!  Radical by name only it seems! 

And one cannot help but wonder if, once tomorrows results are known, and the celebrations (what the Spanish do best of all!) are over, if anything will actually change.

Spain is a country in flux, but the paradox is that whilst change is being forced upon the nation by the recent austerity measures and an economy that looks to be sliding ever deeper into the red, nothing actually changes. 

Everyone bitches and moans about the lack of cash in their pocket and the complete and utter absence of prospects for the current U25's, no-one really wants anything to change.  If things could just go back to how they were 4 or 5 years ago then the majority of Spaniards would settle for that.

As a political and social policy, sticking one's head in the sand isn't usually a vote winner, but then Spain is a place apart, still reeling from a Francoist hangover and a black-market economy that bleeds the life from Spain as a vampire bat drains a vein, Spain is a nation lost in the political wilderness, wandering aimlessly, but forever looking over the shoulder to the good old days of a few years before.

Historically Spain has been stuck in a time-warp since the era of the Armada and as an Englishman living here I find many of the attitudes and 'customs' (for want of a better term) similarly dated, old fashioned and out-moded.  On the face of it, a staunchly Catholic country, where incongruously church attendances are actually lower than in the UK, yet religious holidays hypocritically fill the calender.  Any excuse for a party!  And as an electoral tactic holding local elections on a Sunday is a no-brainer.  It will almost certainly lower turnout because church is such a good excuse not to vote, whether you actually attend or not.

In the Basque region then the radical nationalists may well find themselves as the one of the new voices of the people.  If, as expected, a similar trend is seen in Galicia with the nationalists pulling together with the communists, separatists and the ecologists, it may spark further disharmony with the Catalonian electorate who hold their elections next month.  And if Artur Mas, Catalonia's President, is re-elected he has already promised a full referendum on the question of Catalonian independence, which may well be the first of many similar referendums all over Spain.

As one of Spain's richest provinces the outcome of the Catalonian referendum could be crucial for the future stability and unity of the Spanish state, especially since Mas yesterday agreed to work more closely with Basque nationalist leader Iñigo Urkullu on the issue of their respective sovereignty claims, further weakening the stance of Rajoy as he attempts to paper over the vast cracks that are fracturing this ever-more fragile and sick nation. 

What the future holds here I don't know.  As fast as people say 'it can't get any worse' it just does!  And it keeps getting worse.  I'm pessimistic about the immediate future of Spain simply because they seem to be unable to adapt to the changing economic climate.  There are no new solutions for what are a host of new problems and until someone actually stands up and offers something truly radical as a possibly way out, then Spain will continue to flounder as its' people go from bad to worse.

What do you think?

P XX

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Eurozone Crisis: The shit hits the fan!

Yo!  Wassup?

A few years ago I had cause to go to a burlesque show in aid of a charity that helps disabled performers out.  Apologies, but I can't recall the name of the charity.  Anyway....it was all pretty adult fare.....burlesque dancers (gorgeous as they were) treating us to enchantingly erotic stripteases and I recall one young guy who (all set to ear-thumping clubby music) sat on a series of dildos that progressed in size from the norm to eye-watering and on again to anus-rupturing, all with a smile so beguilingly innocent that you wouldn't think butter would melt in his mouth!  Impressive stuff!  However, one of the acts took even these levels of 'good taste' to the extreme, though to be fair to the performer, it wasn't entirely his fault!

So, what happened?

We were on a table next to the stage.  The guy came on, did his striptease, all very commonplace by this time of the evening.  Then, just as he seemed about to finish he bent over, wiggled his newly waxed arse right in the face of my wife, Latifa, who is not known for her timidity!  Not that I particularly wanted to have a close up view, but the guys rectum was but inches from my face and I couldn't help but notice he had a link of a chain protruding from his puckered little hole!  He whispered to Latifa, 'pull the ring my lovely!  But do it slowly!'  He wiggled his arse once again...perhaps getting comfortable....or more likely to make me feel even less comfortable!! 

Latifa grabbed hold of the link and proceeded to tug!  The chain slipped from his arsehole, one link after another, getting ever longer.  It was a heavy chain; the sort that many use to lock their bikes up with!  Amazing he could even walk with that up his arse, let alone do a dance and still manage a smile!!!  And the more she pulled, the more bored she got!!  So, Latifa being Latifa, turns to face the audience and starts to yank the chain faster and faster!  Whether the poor guy suffered any after effects (other than acute embarrassment) I do not know.  The chain was dripping and oozing all sorts of....well, shit, I suppose....and it seemed to be endless! 

I could see what was going to happen, as could one or two others at our table.  I edged my chair away and began to take cover beneath the table as Latifa continued to pull, faster and faster.  Finally the chain slopped out of his arse at such a speed that (and here's the horrible part!!) as she then started to swing the effluent covered chain about her head, whooping and hollering for all she was worth, the shit just flew off in all directions as she was muck-spreading in a field!!  OMG!!!

From where I sat, cowering beneath the table, I could see Latifa as if in slow motion, standing above me, laughing and cheering, swinging the chain about without a care in the world, as the shit flew off the chain and around the room landing with soft, wet splodges on everyone and everything around!!

Laugh?  I almost died!!  But when she finally sat down again with a face beaming and looking as innocent as a child, she took umbrage with me when, back at the table, I pointed out her...ummmm....little transgression!!  She didn't believe me!  Not one word!  Even when I pointed out the ghastly, shit splattered table and chairs!!  Then she sat back into her chair and felt the unreal squelch of human waste on her back!  "Ooooh!  Did I really do that?"

All the other women were aghast, understandably!  Latifa, in her typical way, wasn't a bit embarrassed, even when the stripper came over to apologise!  "I had 3 enemas before I came out!  Sorry luv!!  Shouldn't have happened like that!"

For the next 30 minutes the women crowded the bathroom as they cleaned themselves up!  Latifa too had disappeared in that direction.  The other women slowly filed out cursing and swearing, covered in fading brown spots!  When Latifa finally reappeared she looked, once again, like a million dollars!  In her tiny little bag (no bigger than my wallet!) she had folded and cajoled a spare evening dress, which she now wore with added aplomb!  The only woman at the venue not covered in shit stains!! 

"You never know," she told me!  "Always be prepared!"

Not ever having been a boy scout this motto was NOT in my repertoire!  But Latifa gave us all a good lesson that day!  You never know when the shit might fly your way!  I just ducked, kept my head down and was lucky, whereas others came in for the full pebble-dashing!!  Not a pleasnat thing at all....as funny as it all seemed at the time!

And in light of all the shit flying around the global financial sector at the moment being prepared for the worst is a lesson that she could well teach to many current heads of state.

Yesterday Spain and France, collectively, failed miserably to raise the 10bn Euro they had hoped from bond sales.  After trading had finished Spain had sold a paltry 3.6bn Euros of Spanish 10 year yield bonds but had to pay an average 6.975% interest in order to sell those (see http://gu.com/p/33e3h for more detail).  This is the highest rate paid since 1997 and the highest they have paid since entering the Euro.  Despite this sales did not reach the expected 4bn ceiling increasing the Eurozone uncertainties and further fracturing the already fragile major stock markets that have, without exception, opened depressingly down this morning!

France went on to sell their 10 year bonds at (the relatively high rate of ) 2.8% yield, a figure which is up substantially on similar auctions 6 months earlier.

Britain also auctioned off some its' debt at just 1.44% yield, an interest rate that still shows the levels of confidence the market has in Britains ability to weather the latest crisis.  However, this has not stopped the German press ( for example, see http://www.spiegel.de/ or http://gu.com/p/33eqx for a partial translation) taking a swipe at Britains ever growing youth unemployment problem and the poor (expected) growth of the UK economy. 

David Cameron is due to meet with Angela Merkel later today and we can well expect some fireworks at that meeting where both sides are up in arms (figure of speech...not an absolute) about their differing approaches to the various problems. 

All this whilst new ECB President Mario Draghi used his first speech to fire a broadside at the major Euro powers over their tardiness at implementing the Eurozones 'European Financial Stability Facility' (EFSF) rescue plan which was agreed on May 10 last year and has yet to be implented.

You know, I read all this and I basically understand whats going on.  What I don't get is why Europe seems to be picking away at its' own sores.  We are supposed to be all Europeans now and yet the powers that be bicker like school kids fighting over a toy!  They tug and they pull and they push each other about, until finally the toy ends up the dirt broken and useless.

Where's the unity?  Where's the team spirit?  Or maybe I am just being overly cuddly wuddly about it all?  Hopelessly naïve even?  Someone tell me, please!!!!

And finally....on sunday we have the general election here in Spain.  All indications are that Mariano Rajoy, leader of the People's Party, will romp to a landslide victory.  He has made much during his campaigning of Zapatero's woefully poor handling of the financial crisis (not that I disagree one iota) and the Spanish electorate seem to have latched onto the need for a change.  Once again though I find I am left bemused by the vagaries of Spanish politics.  Rajoy's whole campaign has been about slagging off Zapatero and his (outgoing?) Socialists and the need for change.

Ok!  Fair enough!

But, not one word has he uttered about how he will change things!  And what's more the voters don't seem to care!  Again...I'm in need of some further explanation yuet again.  Someone please explain to me how this can be?  Why doesn't anyone seem interested in what changes Rajoy might bring? 

Maybe Monday will bring some more answers.

Have a great weekend and remember...when the shits flying all around, the safest place is always under the table!

P xxxxx