Continuing on a nationalism related theme, I was reading this morning about the purchase by Gas Natural of a 45% stake in the electricity company Unión Fenosa. The shares have been bought from the construction company ACS, presided by a man better known to many as being a former president of Real Madrid; Florentino Perez. ACS and Perez have done very nicely out of the deal, but that is not my main point in writing about the operation. Casting my mind back to a similar situation a few years ago, when Gas Natural tried to buy out Endesa, I remembered the huge political storm that bid provoked. The rabid right came out in force against allowing the Catalans of Gas Natural to control Endesa, in a memorable lapse Esperanza Aguirre accused the government of permitting the sale of the company to “foreigners”.
Naturally expecting a similar reaction this time around, I went off in search on the internet to see if the patriotic campaign in defence of Fenosa was already beginning. Starting at El Mundo’s web page I could only find a straightforward account of the operation on the economics pages. To my distress, I got the same result over at Libertad Digital. What could be happening to those for whom the only things that matter are “España y Libertad”? Wait a minute, I’m getting a message on my earpiece……What’s that you say? …..Florentino Perez is a shareholder of Libertad Digital….and you think that might have something to do with their lack of reaction?....It’s a sorry state of affairs indeed when the nation can be sold so cheaply.
Naturally expecting a similar reaction this time around, I went off in search on the internet to see if the patriotic campaign in defence of Fenosa was already beginning. Starting at El Mundo’s web page I could only find a straightforward account of the operation on the economics pages. To my distress, I got the same result over at Libertad Digital. What could be happening to those for whom the only things that matter are “España y Libertad”? Wait a minute, I’m getting a message on my earpiece……What’s that you say? …..Florentino Perez is a shareholder of Libertad Digital….and you think that might have something to do with their lack of reaction?....It’s a sorry state of affairs indeed when the nation can be sold so cheaply.
9 comments:
Graeme, you're an unreformed cynic. When did business interests ever have anything to do with news reporting or nationalist fervour for that matter?
I plead guilty, but society's to blame.
Personally, I like to blame reality.
I can think of better reasons why you should feel ashamed . . . . :-)
Which probably should have been posted somewhere else. But it's after 6.
As cryptic comments go Colin, that is not at all bad.
I would try explaining but it's before 12.
I suppose you could argue that it always is. Before 12 that is.
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