A delayed sense of urgency
The PP needs to back government efforts to keep Spain solvent, rather than blaming it for the crisis
In a week that saw stock exchanges round the planet plummet, stripping companies of their value, and following intense speculation from the international money markets on Spanish and Italian debt, putting further pressure on the euro, the opposition Popular Party has decided to demand the "urgent appearance" of Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero before Congress to explain the "grave economic and financial situation" in Spain. It has to be said that the PP's sense of urgency comes a little late in the day. The debt differential has been stabilized thanks to the intervention of the European Central Bank (ECB), which has been able to fend off speculators by buying Spanish and Italian debt in the secondary markets. The government no longer enjoys the autonomy to intervene as the ECB can, although it has announced an additional plan to correct the 2011 deficit.
As for the matter of the hard-hit stock exchanges, which have continued to fall throughout the week, the PP knows, or certainly should know, that this is a response to fears that the world economy, and in particular the European economy, will enter recession again in 2012. Unless the opposition seriously believes that the prime minister's decisions, whether right or wrong, really do influence the global economy, there is little that Zapatero can tell the country's elected representatives that they do not already know.
The decision agreed upon by the assorted financial supervisory bodies of Spain, France, Belgium and probably Italy to limit short selling on the markets, which causes such instability and fluctuations, cannot be analyzed in a purely internal context. Which is not to say that Zapatero should not explain the reasons for the measures that he is preparing to implement.
The prime minister should always be ready, when necessary, to give an account of government policy, whether through Congress or other means, but the PP's "urgent" call, made, it should be noted, while the opposition party's leaders are holidaying, smacks of nothing more than the opportunism that has come to define its approach to politics.
We face a global crisis, and for this reason, the opposition should be supporting the cuts and spending adjustments approved by the government and the regional administrations. The PP's tactics raise the question as to whether it is hoping that the economic situation continues to worsen in the mistaken belief that when it comes to office, it will be able to lay even more blame on its predecessor for the difficulties it faces in addressing this country's problems.
