Are we european?
2006/05/07 No comments yetYes, indeed we are! And don’t you dare say the opposite. That’s what most people in Spain will answer. It is quite clear that geographically Spain belongs to Europe. We are members of the European Union, we share the euro common currency and we have the world’s 9th largest GDP (Gross Domestic Product). Being in such a developed region is quite a privilege, yet we still manage to be known for other aspects: our warm weather, the quality of our beaches or our relaxed and party prone mentality. It may seem fantastic being able to combine economic and cultural growth while keeping a traditional approach to life. How do we manage to do that? Or don’t we?
According to Transparency International which yearly elaborates a corruption perception index, out of our 11 common currency european neighbours only 3 of them have more corruption than we do (Portugal, Greece and Italy). Wait, isn’t there common pattern? Aren’t these the countries which enjoy a warmer weather? the typical Mediterranean way of life countries? Is corruption really a problem or am I being an alarmist?
Let me focus on Spain whose situation I am more familiar with. Lately, the attention has been drawn to Marbella, a small 120,000 inhabitants touristic city situated in the beach reasort of the Costa del Sol. A police operation known as Operación Malaya took place: Most city hall members were arrested including the mayor Marisol Yagüe and some of her most immediate collaborators. In Spain, it was a known fact something funny was going on, yet it couldn’t be proved until last month. 25 people were arrested and goods worth more than 2.400 million euro were confiscated, including great art, pure breed horses, great value weapons, significant cash amounts, luxury vehicles and an helicopter. That makes almost 100 million apiece. Unbelievable!
A punctual situation? That’s just the tip of the iceberg…
In a different case, the recording of a phone conversation between a councillor of Orihuela and a businessman was made public. They were talking about how to distribute about 2 million euro of public funds between them and some friends. Let me quote some parts:
- AF: You’ve got the key. They have to reach an agreement with you, whoever they are…
- JF: That’s what this is about and you know it. I don’t want to be mayor, it sucks. What I want is meddle from behind. (…) He (refering to the mayor) could have been the happiest man on Earth having me meddling from behind, that’s what I’ve always enjoyed. Giving speeches sucks.
- AF: Just wait until I hear something. If I see any fissures we’ll talk and see how to make things work.
- JF: If I see any fissures I’ll tell you too (…) We can earn several millions with a 3 million square meter PAU. Just make the calculations (…) it results in about 180 million euro, which is what those sons of bitches are earning.
Due to its nature, this recording is not enough to convict them, yet it caused a notorious scandal in the small city and several demonstrations took place. At the present day, more than one month later the situation hasn’t returned to normal. Nobody resigned.
As a final note, let me mention a funny fact. According to the Central Bank of Spain in our country there are around 27% of all 500€ notes from the eurozone. If equally distributed, the amount should only be around 10%. This means there are more 500€ than 5€ notes in Spain. These notes are highly associated with informal economy, that is why at this point this data shouldn’t surprise us.
In case you were wondering, now you know how ¿some? spanish politicians behave: they like to meddle from behind… Now, let me ask again: are we european?
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