Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Spain president, is following a “keep your head down fashion”. He tries to stay on the background of most of the international meetings and he tries that Spain is not mentioned in the economic reports from Brussels and Frankfurt. Spain, Italy, Ireland and Belgium do like the same kind of fashion. Now they don’t want to be noticed so they are wearing the “keep your head down” clothes. However, this fashion can work, but not if the figures stop adding up as they are doing. The problem is that Zapatero is attending to an event where this kind of fashion is not appropriate; he is attending to an economic crisis, which does not match with the political instability.
In my opinion Zapatero is following this behavior because he is scared about the Spanish opinion. He is scared because of the elections this Saturday. He knows that the PSOE is going to get one of the lower results of its history. He knows that a great part of Spain blames him for the crisis, so if Spain gets no mentioned at all on the reports, maybe some population would think about who to vote. I think that, the crisis, it is not just Zapatero’s fault. We are not where we are, just because of the actions of an individual, because we belong to a global interdependent economic system. However I do agree that the actions of the socialist government in economy have not been the most appropriate ones and that Zapatero has not have the nerves that were needed in such a situation. He feels the rejection of a country and that is pretty hard to assume so now he tries to say goodbye without making noise.
Inman, Philip. Zapatero's strategy for Spain: stay out of the news. The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/economics-blog/2011/nov/11/spain-keeps-low-profile-amid-eurozone-crisis
Irene, I think you pointed out a great assumption of the next elections. I really like your last sentence: say goodbye without making noise; its perefectly pointed out! I think you are mostly right in everything what you have said, but, we can't forget that Zapatero was the president of our country for almost 8 years and the principal responsable of the country's administration. It is absolutely true that we live in a global market and its repercussions are also ours. However, even if Zapatero is an individual, he had the power of controling, negotiating and administrating and he have not done none of them in a helpful way. I think it is a very interesting article that makes us analyzing and learning politic theory. Thank you Irene!
ReplyDeleteI think it was the least he could do after what he has done. He knew he wasnt going to last much when the numbers of unemployment went up everymonth. I think it is sad for a presindent to leave like this but in his case understandable. What I dont understand is why dindt it happen earlier?
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