In the wake of Barack Obama's decision to give the EU summit miss, José Luis Zapetero's EU presidency is languishing. If only his problems were confined to the European stage. With the Spanish economy on the rocks, the national press, many with knives out, remarks that the president is going through an unprecedented crisis. "Total distrust", headlines ABC. On the morning after the Madrid stock exchange plunged 6%, the conservative daily points at Spain's "crisis of credibility", which puts prime minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero in a tricky position. This is all too clear with latest polls giving the conservative Partido Popular (PP) a four point advantage over the president's Socialist PSOE. ABC criticizes the socialist leader and his "chain of mistakes at Davos and Brussels". The "frivolous and distant" Zapatero is also accused of "having cosied down into an unreal world". Demanding "urgent decisions", ABC laments that that his "passivity and inefficiency have condemned Spain to years of obscurity". El Mundo, however, applies some balm by soothingly reporting on Zapatero's 4 February visit to Washington, where Obama invited him to the interestingly monikered "National Prayer Breakfast". Zapatero succeeded "in making a speech based on universal ethical values, and connected with the auditorium". The daily is apparently relieved that "Zapatero has finished trying to look like Aznar [his conservative predecessor] in his effort to show how close he is to the president of the US".
In the wake of Barack Obama's decision to give the EU summit miss, José Luis Zapetero's EU presidency is languishing. If only his problems were confined to the European stage. With the Spanish economy on the rocks, the national press, many with knives out, remarks that the president is going through an unprecedented crisis.
"Total distrust", headlines ABC. On the morning after the Madrid stock exchange plunged 6%, the conservative daily points at Spain's "crisis of credibility", which puts prime minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero in a tricky position. This is all too clear with latest polls giving the conservative Partido Popular (PP) a four point advantage over the president's Socialist PSOE. ABC criticizes the socialist leader and his "chain of mistakes at Davos and Brussels". The "frivolous and distant" Zapatero is also accused of "having cosied down into an unreal world". Demanding "urgent decisions", ABC laments that that his "passivity and inefficiency have condemned Spain to years of obscurity".
El Mundo, however, applies some balm by soothingly reporting on Zapatero's 4 February visit to Washington, where Obama invited him to the interestingly monikered "National Prayer Breakfast". Zapatero succeeded "in making a speech based on universal ethical values, and connected with the auditorium". The daily is apparently relieved that "Zapatero has finished trying to look like Aznar [his conservative predecessor] in his effort to show how close he is to the president of the US".
Was THAT a snub, or total ignorance? *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
