The Spanish scene by a Catalan
A wide ranging commentary and I liked this passage for showing the complexities:
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The international press has been quick to link the unprecedented pro-independence success of the rally in Barcelona and the surge in secessionist feeling in polls in Catalonia (support for independence seems to be consistently above the 50% threshold for the first time) to the dire economic situation in Spain. Analysts have been puzzled by the fact that this arrives at the same time that the regional authorities in Barcelona, facing the impossibility of the markets financing its soaring debt (the largest both in total and in per capita terms amongst Spanish regions) - have requested a bailout from the Spanish government. Catalan nationalists argue that Catalonia has consistently been transferring a disproportionate amount of its wealth to poorer Spanish regions – the current Catalan government estimates transfers amount to 8% of regional GDP – and complain about the irony that Catalonia may now be subject to additional conditionality in order to receive Madrid’s bailout. The absence of standard official statistics about interregional transfers (deemed too politically sensitive to publish by the Spanish Government in recent years) makes the debate one of faith and a matter of choice about which figures to believe: different economists and studies come to wildly diverging, even contradictory conclusions.
Link:http://www.opendemocracy.net/jordi-v...rch-for-future
Perception, hope, reality...
Una teora de la clase poltica espaola
, CSAR MOLINAS 10 SEP 2012 - 01:34 CET, El Pais, http://politica.elpais.com/politica/...85_745267.html
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En este artculo propongo una teora de la clase poltica espaola para argumentar la necesidad imperiosa y urgente de cambiar nuestro sistema electoral para adoptar un sistema mayoritario. La teora se refiere al comportamiento de un colectivo y, por tanto, no admite interpretaciones en trminos de comportamientos individuales. Por qu una teora? Por dos razones. En primer lugar porque una teora, si es buena, permite conectar sucesos aparentemente inconexos y explicar sucesos aparentemente inexplicables. Es decir, dar sentido a cosas que antes no lo tenan. Y, en segundo lugar, porque de una buena teora pueden extraerse predicciones tiles sobre lo que ocurrir en el futuro. Empezando por lo primero, una buena teora de la clase poltica espaola debera explicar, por lo menos, los siguientes puntos:
- Cmo es posible que, tras cinco aos de iniciada la crisis, ningn partido poltico tenga un diagnstico coherente de lo que le est pasando a Espaa?
- Cmo es posible que ningn partido poltico tenga una estrategia o un plan a largo plazo creble para sacar a Espaa de la crisis? Cmo es posible que la clase poltica espaola parezca genticamente incapaz de planificar?
- Cmo es posible que la clase poltica espaola sea incapaz de ser ejemplar? Cmo es posible que nadie-salvo el Rey y por motivos propios- haya pedido disculpas?
- Cmo es posible que la estrategia de futuro ms obvia para Espaa -la mejora de la educacin, el fomento de la innovacin, el desarrollo y el emprendimiento y el apoyo a la investigacin- sea no ya ignorada, sino masacrada con recortes por los partidos polticos mayoritarios?
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A European policy outlook: the crisis and beyond, LSE, http://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/v...r.aspx?id=1564
Quote:
Speaker(s): Pierre Moscovici
Chair: Peter Sutherland
Recorded on 17 September 2012 in Old Theatre, Old Building.
Pierre Moscovici will address both the policy outlook in France and the ongoing crisis management developments at the European level. Pierre Moscovici was appointed Minister of the Economy and Finance on 16 May 2012, following the election of President Franois Hollande. He has been involved in European and international affairs as well as in national politics, in particular on fiscal issues. He was first a member of the European Parliament from 1994 to 1997, and became one of its vice-presidents from 2004 to 2007. In the meantime, he was elected to France's National Assembly in 1997 (and was later re-elected in 2007 and 2012), in the constituency of Doubs in eastern France, and was appointed Minister for European Affairs in the government of Lionel Jospin from 1997 to 2002, where he was specifically involved in finalizing the Amsterdam Treaty in 1997 and negotiating the Nice Treaty in 2000. He was also involved in negotiating the European Constitutional Treaty of 2004 and was a vigorous advocate of its adoption in France. Before holding elected office, he worked for the French Socialist Party, which he joined back in 1984 as an expert on fiscal issues. Pierre Moscovici joined the Audit Court (Cour des Comptes) after graduating from the Ecole Nationale dAdministration (ENA) in 1984.
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Porsche, Daimler Indicate Europes Car Crisis Spreading
By Alex Webb, Dorothee Tschampa and Tommaso Ebhardt - Sep 21, 2012 5:44 AM MT, Bloomberg News, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-0...spreading.html
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Daimler AG (DAI) and Porsche AG provided evidence that the worst European car market in 17 years has started to spread to the luxury brands, mirroring a broader recession that has spilled from southern Europe to Germany.
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European car sales dropped 8.5 percent in August, the steepest decline since February, the Brussels-based ACEA industry association said on Sept. 18. The group forecasts that European deliveries will hit a 17-year low in 2012. German car registrations fell 4.7 percent in August, pushing the eight- month sales figure to a 0.6 percent decline.
The regions volume carmakers, hit hardest by the European markets downward spiral, are taking even tougher measures. Peugeot agreed yesterday to sell a majority stake in its trucking unit to raise cash. Fiats volume brands are eliminating 20 percent of management jobs in Europe, according to a person familiar with the matter.
How we can beat the far right
An article from the FT, prior to the launch of a report next week by Counterpoint, a London-based European think tank and sub-titled:
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Reluctant radicals’ make up the majority of Europe’s rightwing populist voters. But there are ways to win them back
Link:http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/667b08a6-0...#axzz27C8yOh3f
It opens with:
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There is a story about Europe that says we are living in a rerun of the 1930s. According to this narrative, the populist right is rising again as crisis-hit Europeans look for scapegoats. Indeed, rightwing populist parties have polled more than or near one-fifth of the vote during the crisis in countries as tranquil as Finland and Switzerland. Already the populists are poisoning political debate, by pushing mainstream parties to take far-right paranoid, xenophobic views seriously. Now they aim to graduate to government.
But perhaps we worry too much. A fascinating new report by Counterpoint, the London-based research and advisory group, provides an unhysterical analysis of rightwing populism in Europe today. Merging recent data on voting in France, Finland and the Netherlands with previous surveys from around Europe, Counterpoint identifies who is voting for these parties and why. The report helps us see what strategies the populist right will use to grow – and what strategies we can use to counter them.
Small nation under pressure
An article on Portugal, a country that rarely appears in the UK press, which indicates:
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The people have finally realised that the troika-imposed austerity is not working in Portugal.
As youth can sometimes be mobilised, this is significant:
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unemployment is close to 16% of the population (youth unemployment is estimated by analysts to be as high as 40%.....
There is a 'safety valve':
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..the young and talented have decided to follow the advice of the Prime Minister and are now leaving the country in droves.
Link:http://www.opendemocracy.net/eunice-...l-plays-truant