PM Zapatero's economic advisors (Vicenç Navarro)

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A trait of Zapatero's government has been to propose important changes on social issues, following the Social Democratic tradition well established in Europe (and in which Spain was considerably backwards), earning a well-deserved applause on important issues which affect the quality of life of Spanish citizens. Reforms such as the Fourth Pillar of Welfare (with the approval of the Dependency Law, among other measures) have earned national and international recognition. However, this positive side of his tenure has been limited by his economic and fiscal policy, which has diminished the potential of the social measures approved by the government. And this is due to the economic thought that has guided a large part of these economic and fiscal policies, which is well defined in the book by Jordi Sevilla (the most influential economist in the birth of the current known as New Way), entitled New Socialism, with a preface by the then candidate Zapatero. In this book, Sevilla wrote

Can anyone defend in this day and age that a social democratic programme must favour more taxes and spending and introduce normative rigidities into the economy?

(to see a critique of Jordi Sevilla's book, see the chapter "the debate on the socialist strategy: the new socialism" in my book Spain's social underdevelopment: causes and consequences (Anagrama, 2002).

Insolvency must be purged from Europe's system and it must be done openly and honestly.

Soini probably does not understand that opacity, duplicity and dishonesty are the CORE of the current economic system and that to purge insolvency "openly and honestly" would almost certainly bring down the entire edifice. The appeal of populists such as Timo Soini or Ron Paul is that they seem sufficiently determined and bloody minded to do just that. The problem is that if they are selected as the agents of this transformation, we will get some version of their regressive social views. The fate of the TBTF bankers I could live with, were it confined to them, which is unlikely, but returning women to the 19th century I could not live with. But there would be a Thermidor and a new Directorate and then, likely, Banksters 2.0.  

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."