Mario Alegria (Columnist)
THE wimpish June 26 election campaign has kicked off with no new ideas and no new strategies.
It appears that the four political parties are again more interested in taking over government in a protagonist role rather than addressing the needs of the country.
Almost inevitably, Podemos, now rejuvenated with their pact with the prehistoric United Left, will attempt to entice – yet again – the socialists into a grand leftist coalition.
On the other hand, interim PM Rajoy and his Popular Party are still hoping the PSOE will group together, along with centrist Ciudadanos, to form a grand coalition.
Neither scenario is going to happen unless something major occurs.
The late night talk shows and interviews with candidates are full old rhetoric heard a thousand times before… no one is offering new ideas, and their focus seems only on rampant corruption, which is, understandably, one of the major concerns of Spaniards.
They all seem to agree on one issue: no one wants to go through a third round of elections.
But the only way that is going to happen will be if Spaniards go out and vote en masse.
And the only way to attract them to the ballot box is by offering them new solutions.
Hmm, this is not strictly true. Rajoy has suggested shorter working days. That is a big change.
I doubt any of them can deliver any of their key pledges because they have very little fiscal flexibility and will have to form a coalition which will make it difficult to implement new policies. Hopefully it will mean that whoever does get into power will not be able to do much other than try and run the economy as opposed to making it even worse than it is now.
Podemos are in some kind of dreamland if they think they can fulful their promises, they don’t have the fiscal freedom to do so unless they leave the Euro. Spain should never have joined the Euro, it was a huge mistake and they are paying for it big time – thank God we didn’t join.
Fred, I doubt Rajoy’s work hourings idea would work during the summer months in Andalucia and again, it will be a tough one to get through.
I’m afraid the Spanish economy is in a room with no exits.