When Dave met Mariano

MARIANO RAJOY and Britain’s prime minister David Cameron had a cosy love-in recently, discussing UK relations with the EU amongst other topics. Spain’s president was at a clear advantage because he is able to blame everything that is wrong in this country on his predecessors. Cameron on the other hand, also blames everything on his predecessors, but has to govern a nation that is determined to blame everything on Brussels.

Double standards

REGIONAL governments that took over after last May’s elections have inherited massive debts.
Although Aragon, Murcia and Castilla-La Mancha have problems the Valencian Community, which is €37.615 billion in the red is the worst-off. They can thank the pharaonic projects and the inflated self-esteem of Eduardo Zaplana and Gerardo Camps for that. Possibly Camps’ successor Alberto Fabra would have embarked on equally magnificent projects but he took over when the crisis was at its height and his wings were clipped.
Spain’s president Mariano Rajoy has spent much of his four years in office complaining about the legacy left by the socialists and it will be interesting to see how he reacts to similar rumblings from regions governed by the PP until last May.
So far all they have received are promises of less money and admonitions to stop making excuses.

A violent solution

THE jihadist disarmed by three American passengers on a Paris train had lived in Spain.
Another jihadist immigrant from San Martin de la Vega (Madrid) who was planning attacks in Spain has a partner whose five brothers went to fight in Syria.
What went wrong, the Spanish media asked? The answer is simple: nothing went wrong. These people were ripe for recruitment because they had been taught that violence is the only solution to real or imaginary problems.