New Year Misery in Spain

On the second day of the new year a 57-year-old family man in Malaga set fire to himself because he has no work, no money and no future. He cannot feed his family. The poor man (and poor is a very apt word here) hasn’t died, so far, but he has received burns over 80% of his body, including third degree burns. In Spain, there is a growing list of suicides and attempted suicides directly connected with loss of employment and impending homlessness. This is the brave new world of Mariano Rajoy, the most unpopular president since Carrero Blanco – he who was Franco’s right-hand man and was, significantly, assassinated.

Soon after Marie Antoinette said those famous words “Let them eat cake”, there was a revolution in France, and she was beheaded for her arrogance. A revolution has already started in Spain, albeit a more pacific one, at least for the moment.

Mariano Rajoy asks his country to tighten its belt, but strangely he loosens his own with regular unnecessary banquets at state expence in which his own consumption costs the state over 1000€ every single time. Meanwhile, 300 politicians have been charged with corruption, most of them, unsurprisingly, come from the right wing Partido Popular, which is Mariano Rajoy’s political party. Small wonder Catalonia seeks independence! The rest of us in Spain would miss Catalonia, but we wish the Catalans good luck. Maybe, if we ask nicely, we (the rest of Spain) can all join Catalonia in a new state that doesn’t include Mariano Rajoy – that’s if er, he hasn’t lost his head before then!

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This post was written by Mike Summers