Spanish politician warns cuts are necessary “if we don’t want to become another Argentina”
The President of the Community of Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre, has warned about the “difficult” situation Spain is going through, and said “If we don’t want to become another Argentina, with a ‘corralito’ and inflation rates around 20-40%, we must cut the public spending and find the accounts’ balance.”
“We have to cut all subsidies, though I’m not of the idea of increasing taxes since they are counter productive”, Aguirre told reporters on Monday and added: “This is very simple, we can’t spend more than what we make.”
Likewise, the official stated that “it is necessary to make some cuts at several public offices’, which unveils to possible job cuts of civil servants.
“The situation of Spain and of the community of Madrid are very difficult, very hard, and even when a bit better than other regions, it’s not an island. And therefore I believe all Spaniards have to be clear about the fact we must cut expenditures”, said Aguirre.
She added that it is a matter of cutting outlays in the same proportion as income has dropped, “it’s something very simple that all homes practice: don’t spend more than what you make”
“We are all well aware that we can’t spend more than our income. We must put an end to all subsidies, subventions and government ‘suckling’; it’s over, we must increase our income”, insisted Aguirre who as head of the Madrid Community admitted that “city offices will have to be closed, expenses drastically cut, very painful but necessary”.
Suggested Stories
-
May 23rd 2013
Europe’s three largest economies call for stricter rules on corporate tax avoidance
-
May 22nd 2013
Quarter of Italians edging the poverty line and most youngsters survive thanks to Mon and Dad
-
May 22nd 2013
Francis criticizes ‘savage capitalism” and the “logic of profit at any cost”
-
May 22nd 2013
PM Cameron warns 10 Overseas Territories on tax issues: ‘get your house in order’
33 comments Feed
Note: Comments do not reflect MercoPress’ opinions. They are the personal view of our users. We wish to keep this as open and unregulated as possible. However, rude or foul language, discriminative comments (based on ethnicity, religion, gender, nationality, sexual orientation or the sort), spamming or any other offensive or inappropriate behaviour will not be tolerated. Please report any inadequate posts to the editor. Comments must be in English. Thank you.
Great news for the Community of Madrid.
To say Spain risks becoming another Argentina is a little arrogant.
I would rather be in Argentina’s predicament than Spain’s.
Argentina is a rich country that is baddy run.
Spain is a poor country that has been badly run.
Argentina can turn its ship around. Spain is just slowly becoming an extension of the Sahara and it is hard to be optimistic about its future.
We hope the mighty empress CFK takes grave offence to that remark,
And warns spain of the consequences,
Impounds Spanish ships,
Turns other south American countries against her,
Yep,
An insult if ever there was one,
Still, if you go round insulting others,
eventually, others will insult you lol.
Come on CFK , give us another laugh .
www.clarin.com/sociedad/Argentina-pais-salida-laboral-espanoles_0_742125880.html
It was probably an observation rather than a dig.
@4 How can the comparison be “inappropriate and low-class” if it is accurate. And having looked up the figures, she could just as easily have cited Mexico.
@5 Oh dear, another failure to mention what the linked article actually says. Considering that the ideal place to emigrate to for Spaniards is stated to be Brazil, followed by Peru and then Mexico. Effectively what the article tells Spaniards is that if they are desperate to get out of Spain, go to Brazil. If they are more desperate, go to Peru. More desperate still, go to Mexico. If they are so desperate that they are scraping the bottom of the bucket and nowhere else will take them, go to argieland. Still, that might be considered good. Better than not having a bucket at all! Which is where argieland is!
@7 I don't know. If you live in a semi-democracy that maintains a band of paramilitary thugs, continually tries to harass a peaceful neighbour and want to go the whole hog and live in a thinly-veiled dictatorship, why would you not choose argieland?
That´s right, she could have said Mexico, Greece, Portugal, Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and many other countries, including Spain.
Very few countries in the world are doing well today. The traditionally wealthy ones are burdened by huge and incredible debts, banking crisis, unemployment and stagnant growth, just like Spain, Italy, France, Britain, the US, Japan, etc. even Germany, while the developing world has lest debt, less unemployment, a little bit more growth, but living standards and salaries are much, much lower and levels of violence and insecurity are much more higher.
It seems the Spanish and European austerity junkies are so afraid of becoming the Argentina of 2012 (or any time since 2003) that they are instead pushing to be the Argentina of 2001!
There you go again with your jokes. ;))
At least she has one thing to be thankful for.
politician has. She speaks fluent English and is a strong admirer of Mrs Thatcher.
Keep an eye out for her in the future. She would be a better president
than this troll Rajoy.(current president of Spain)
I continue to hope they will swallow the bitter pill to put their country right so that future generations can enjoy the wealth and stability that the resources of Argentina could provide if properly managed.
@10 Who, with any intelligence, pride, self-respect, would want to be the argieland of anytime? Prime characteristics: Thieving, lying, super-inflationary, poverty-stricken (but not where it shows), corrupt and headed by a thieving, lying, corrupt, grasping, incompetent hag with a face like a donkey's ar*e. Bet her tits droop down to her knees as well!
@14 The world of CFK! Trust no-one. Backstabbers all. Honour amongst thieves? Not in LatAm. Plenty of thieves. No honour.
@17 Then we could sell it to Chile, for a purely nominal sum. Just to show that there IS a nation with a sense of natural justice!
I agree that CFK et al are not particlularly clever people but I dont think their political actions and inactions are really due to lack of ability, intelligence or common sense.
Peronism is all about control so while the -government's- actions seem like ridiculous ineptitude really its deliberate sabotage. As the economy grows, people get richer and and thus the threat to peronism's grip over the people increases. The system simply cant allow that and that is why with all Argentina's wealth it is stuck in a boom and bust cycle. It reaches a certain ceiling level (where the -government- starts to feel like its losing its influence) then crashes
Peronism relies on boom and bust. Allow economic growth to give people hope then progressively add more and more restrictions and greater penalties. The trick is to allow growth take credit for the boom period then blame everyone else for the bust period that the system created and ride it out until the economy inevitably grows again. Inject nationalism into the blood on a regular basis to keep the masses doped up and subservient.
The puzzle is that when you speak to Argentines they are heartily sick of living precariously and want stability, to be respected and regain their place as a wealthy nation. Then they elect another Peronist. I know part of this is down to being inculcated from birth that peronism works for the people but it doesn't. It is amusing that CFKC supporting Argentines see themselves as rebelling against a system that wants to repress them whilst rolling over to a dictator responsible for removing their basic rights.
El Clarin for example is fiercely anti peronism and yet 100% malvinistic (or maybe thats just to sell papers (advertising space)...). But by being nationalistic (as in the case of -las malvinas-) it is supporting the -government- it allegedly hates by allowing it room to behave in a crude, belligerent, authoritarian way in -protecting the interests of Argentina-
El Clarin and other anti peronist media hardly question the manipulating dishonest methods of the government when it comes to the -las malvinas- issue.... and yet do so in almost all other aspects. This isnt consistent and only benefits the peronist system because the system knows it can pull las malvinas out of the bag and for a good while at least subdue and manipulate the middleclass.
Surely the Falklands issue is absolutely key to Peronism power. Didn't Juan Peron realise that the country would never be united unless he invented a common cause and enemy? Argentina was a disparate, squabbling country that couldn't be united without the BIG LIE. That so much effort goes into brainwashing from birth shows how flimsy the claim is. If it were is any way valid, the silly stories and propaganda wouldn't be necessary.
Spain can see the truth and it's such a strong metaphor the entire Spanish nation knows what she is talking about. If CKF tries to silence the press, she'll have to cut the Internet and the BBC will have to launch an Argentine service and Argentine posters will have to tune in to hear the truth!
Apparently the argument came to a very abrupt end,
When Esperanza Aguirre , shouted across the floor and pointed at
Spanish president Mariano Rajoy
And you bloody well leave Gibraltar alone, you bully,
It’s British,
Were not another bloody nasty, CFK
Of Argentina,
Now leave them alone,
The room went very quiet,
End of .??lol
Thankfully not everyone is as blinkered as you.
Why should a “left seeming anti-colonialist” be against all PP politicians? I think that is just weird.
It is a great weakness not to recognise merit in opposing positions. Such attitudes lead to unproductive political tribalism.
I would broadly support Thatcher, but all she did was good.
I would broadly oppose Blair, but not all he did was bad.
Because they're one of Europe's most reactionary parties, with unsavoury links to the Francoist past perhaps? (Yes I know about Peron's links with Franco before any smart alec brings them up, and don't support them!)
I actually do like to engage with, learn from and if appropriate (occasionally!) be convinced by people of opposing views, I have Tory friends in real life and on this board find you yourself, for example, a humane and thoughtful (for the most part) centre-right supoorter who I enjoy debating (as opposed to the more rampant types, you know who I mean!) I'm just confused by AS's seeming personal enthusiasm for a politician calling for cuts and slagging off Argentina when he's usually on Argentina's side
im just me .
It doesn’t matter who’s in power in Spain. Any government will have to push on with the cuts. Spain is close to default on its loans and the cost of borrowing more is unsustainable. To attempt to borrow more now would push those rates even higher and accelerate Spain into the abyss. Ms Aguirre is completely correct. There is no magic bullet for Spain’s problems, just lots of bitter medicine to take.
People can protest, riot and change governments as much as they like but it won’t change a thing. People all over Europe will have to re-evaluate what they can expect the state to provide them with; work longer and take fewer holidays. When being crushed by debt you can default, or work harder and/or spend less. Problem is there are politicians on the left who choose to dispute this fact and play on the naivety/denial of many. This will just prolong the ailing.
I am interested by: “unsavoury links to the Francoist past”, does the PP have a time machine?
I am also curious as to why Franco is “unsavoury” and Castro is not. Both rose to power through violence, both murdered and exiled their opponents, both consolidated power through intimidation and ruled as dictators until death/illness prohibited.
If you were politically colour-blind could you really say one was less savoury than the other?
As for Castro and Franco, the difference is Franco (like Pinochet) rebelled against a democratic government in order to crush the mass movement that had put it in power; Castro represented the armed wing of a mass movement that overthrew a dictatorship. His system is different from liberal democracy but that doesn't mean the (armed) people are against him, and you have to take into account the 50 years of American blockade to see some of the most compelling reasons why not all in the garden is rosy
Commenting for this story is now closed.
If you have a Facebook account, become a fan and comment on our Facebook Page!