A property registrar by profession, Mariano Rajoy spent 8 years occupying senior ministerial positions in the government of José Maria Aznar with no visible achievements of any kind to show for it. He likes to smoke cigars and read Marca.
Monday, November 21, 2011
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16 comments:
Congratulations, you managed to spice it up a bit. But don't use so much filler on these profiles: people will think there's more to Rajoy than it seems!
It was a tough editorial decision to go for the in-depth version, what with Rajoy being such an unknown quantity.
I learned quite a bit from this post. Thanks!
I never realised what a complex, multi-faceted man he was - you'd never guess from his public image! Good on you for really digging deep.
It hasn't been an easy or pleasant job, but I felt somebody had to do it.
Better than the alternative. How sad is that ?
By alternative I assume you mean the Goldman Sachs suit who may soon be brought into replace him?
@Tumbit If you mean Rubalcaba, he had a higher personal approval rating throughout the election campaign. I recommend that you have a look at how many votes the PSOE lost and how many the PP gained compared with last year. Put it this way: the PP didn't exactly win Spanish electors over with their non-campaign.
By `alternative´ I mean the fact the economic situation was worsening under the previous administration, maybe Rubalcaba may have provided a better solution. I simply meant that either Rajoy OR Rubalcaba would have made a better PM than Zapatero
In the case of Rubalcaba, assuming he doesn't prove as hard to dislodge as Rajoy has been in the PP, we will never know. In the case of Mariano it is perhaps slightly too early to make that call, but I would not underestimate the possibility of him being an absolute colossal disaster. Although he will leave no footprints to show he had been there.
"... but I would not underestimate the possibility of him being an absolute colossal disaster."
Leaving aside your obvious antipathy to the PP (I have no special view on either of the two main Spanish political parties, except that I must acknowledge that I loathe 'socialism' in any form, so make no pretence to absolute impartiality ;) ), and as you mentioned he had left no trace in his earlier incarnation in the last PP administration, is your remark based on anything more than blind prejudice? Might he not even have the potential to do a slightly better job than the last head of government Zapatero, or is that discounted by his membership of the PP, in your eyes?
Bill, I guess it comes down to whether you think someone leading Spain enthusiastically into a potential depression (Rajoy) as opposed to reluctantly (Zapatero) is considered to be doing a good job. My evaluation of Rajoy is at least based on personal experience, I was here throughout almost the entire 8 years of the Aznar administration.
Oh, I don't think everything the PSOE did was 'bad' and much of what has happened to Spain is as a result of the failed Euro experiment; I think there are far greater 'sinners' in other parts of the EU than those in Spain (not least Germany and more especially France) , even if they (the Spanish governments of both parties) must take their own share of the blame for the economic debacle and the property bubble and collapse. As for Aznar, my impression is he was pretty good - obviously you with your 'personal' experience might have a different view. However, I comment solely on economic aspects and by that measure the PSOE government was a resounding failure - the reassurances of 3-5 years back that the Spanish banking system was 'robust' whilst understandable as an attempt to stave off the looming economic disaster were never credible to anyone who 'read the runes'. On the other hand much of what Zapatero did in matters of social issues was very positive, in my opinion.
It's too soon to say what Rajoy might/could do. In any case Spain's massive structural problems are not susceptible to quick-fix solutions and any serious observer would not expect him to propose such - unless of course they are the same kind of socialist delusionists who got the country (and the UK too) into the mess it now is; no doubt the Spanish people will give him a little while to come up with some ideas and if they don't work then I expect they will boot him out. Be patient.
they are the same kind of socialist delusionists who got the country (and the UK too) into the mess it now is
(Raises eyebrows, wonders if an internet filter might be invented to deal with this sort of bug-eyes nonsense...)
I'm not trying to claim some special insight by citing personal experience Bill, lot's of others also lived through the Aznar government. But my opinion of a PP absolute majority is that it was an absolute disaster. For the purposes of this debate I think the key issue is the way in which they handle problems when in power. Whether it was Yak-42 (which I've blogged about), The Prestige or -most notably - the Madrid bombings the handling of the issue was awful. The PP in power acts as if they are the dueños del cortijo but accept responsibility for nothing that goes wrong.
On the measures they will take we already know what's going to happen. The same thing that is happening in other countries applying the same measures - prolonged, destructive recession. When I hear people talking about this as a reform process, I occasionally wonder whether they considered the bombing of Hiroshima to be a structural reform too? I would criticise Zapatero above all for not having changed a bit the PP's economic model. There is little doubt that had he adopted earlier the measures which are now being imposed on Spain we would now not even be experiencing the dizzy heights of 0% growth.
Like Graeme, I was here for the whole previous PP administration and I see nothing good on the horizon. Though I must say that it'll be great for business for me as an English teacher. Uni students and young recently graduated professionals (and even middle aged folk) are throwing themselves into serious study of Englishh so they can get the hell out of the country.
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