From: luigi@next02wor.wam.umd.edu (Luis G. Torregrosa)
Subject: !INCREIBLE! WASH. POST
Organization: Workstations at Maryland, University of Maryland, College Park
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 11:18:40 GMT


Dos di'as ma's tarde de que saliera el arti'culo sobre Espa#a en el  
Washington Post, ha salido otro ma's grande todavi'a.
Estoy barajando diferentes posibilidades sobre este feno'meno  
sobrenatural:
1- Ma's de 15 planetas se deben haber alineado en algu'n lugar del  
Universo.
2- Han cambiado de Editor en el perio'dico.
3- A alguno en la oficina se le ocurrio' contar los doce de la CEE por  
curiosidad y al faltarle uno se fue a la Britannica y encontro', ante su  
asombro, ESPA#A.  "?Y estos que' hacen en Europa?" se preguntari'a.  "Pues  
nada vamos a enterarnos de que' pasa por alli'"
4- Uno de la seccio'n de deportes que habi'an mandado a Barcelona se acaba  
de levantar esta semana tras la resaca de cava que se pego' en Julio, y  
esta' mandando arti'culos... para despistar...
5- Algu'n corresponsal del W.P. en un pai's europeo "desarrollado", ha  
decidido darse un garbeo por Espa#a (por eso de que "everybody else is  
doing it")  y esta' mandando arti'culos pa' pagarse el apartamento...

Sea cual sea la razo'n, bienvenida sea.  Aqui' va.... viejas noticias para  
todos nosotros pero interesante...

The Washington Post            Friday, November 20, 1992

SPAIN'S BILLS FALL DUE AFTER A FESTIVE YEAR
(Gonzalez vows to keep pace in Europe)

MADRID-  After a year chockfull of games and gala commemorations, Spain is  
like a party-goer with a hangover--snappish, disoriented and unpleasantly  
surprised at being told that the bill is due.
	Spain has mounted a successful Olympic Games in Barcelona and a  
much-visited world's fair in Seville, and marked repeatedly the 500th  
anniversary of Christopher Columbus's voyage.  It has hosted world leaders  
and cultural lions, unveiled massive public works, inaugurated a major art  
museum.  Everything glittered in 1992. Everything hummed.
	But now Spain is waking up to a harsher reality.  The economy is  
practically dead in the water, unemployment is on the rise, and the  
Socialist government of Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez is warning that the  
heady days of the late 1980s, when the poor got richer and the rich bought  
yachts, are done.
	"It's time to go to the dentist," said Jose Juan Ruiz, the  
official in charge of international affairs for the Economy and Finance  
Ministry.  "You can tell people it's going to be good for them, but you  
can't tell them they are going to enjoy it."
	Gonzalez, who has ruled for 10 years and is expected to seek  
reelection next year, has decided to impose economic discipline in an  
attempt to keep pace with Germany, France and the other "core"  
hard-currency nations in he European Community's drive toward monetary  
union.
	Against the backdrop of a global economic slump, this means a  
jobless rate already twice that of Spain's neighbors will rise, workers  
accustomed to big raises each year will have to settle for less,  
businesses will fail, and public spending for roads, schools and other  
improvements will be curtailed.
	It also means that what some observers see as an already glum,  
morning-after Spanish mood may turn even surlier, Government officials  
acknowledge concern that recent allegations of corruption--some involving  
monies spent for the 1992 festivities--may be creating widespread public  
mistrust.
	"People are very discontented, and I think it's because  
expectations were completely unrealistic," said Cayetano Lopez, rector of  
the Autonomous University of Madrid.
	"It was believed that all desires would be met, all wants  
satisfied.  That was irresponsible on the part of both the people and the  
politicians.  But this is a very worrisome thing for a young democracy--a  
lack of confidence and credibility in the political system," Lopez added.
	Newspapers and weekly magazines are filled with accounts of local  
officials accused of taking bribes or kickbacks for public projects, and  
the press is focusing on the millions that were spent on the Expo 92  
world's fair in Seville.  The case that has attracted the most public  
attention, however, does not involve allegations of corruption, but rather  
what might be called wretched excess: Miguel Boyer's new house.
	Boyer is a former economy minister, a leading light of the  
generation of Socialist officials wwho came to power with Gonzalez--and  
came to symbolize a freshness and idealism of the 1980s.  Like many of his  
comrades, he eventually left government, went into the private sector and  
enjoyed the fruits of the Spanish economic miracle.
	Late last month, the magazine Hola! ran photos of the new house  
that Boyer has built for his bride, Isabel Preysler.  The 44-room mansion  
includes a huge indoor swimming pool and a heated doghouse.  That a  
Socialist member of Gonzalez's inner circle would live so ostentatiously,  
and with a woman once married to heartthrob singer Julio Iglesias,  
prompted angry accusation that the socialist dream had foundered.
	Gonzalez and his government had come to symbolize the flowering of  
a nation after decades under the stultifying rule of dictator Francisco  
Franco.
	With the economy growing at up to 5 percent a year, the government  
was able to fund vast new projects in education, infrastructure and social  
welfare.  Gross national product nearly doubled between 1986 and 1991.   
Gonzalez defined a new kind of Spanish "socialism,"--based on free-market  
principles but with a human face.
	"We've had at least seven years of a real boom," said Agustin  
Valladolid, an Interior Ministry official.
	Writers, artists and filmmakers produced what came to be called  
The Movement.  It was just a matter of time, it seemed, before Spain  
shrugged off the effects of its long isolation and caught up to the rest  
of Europe.
	"Everythingt seems easier," said Mercedes Alcober, a spokeswoman  
for Gonzalez, "when you have money."
	Gonzalez remains the dominant political figure, with no real  
challengers.  But his popularity is at its lowest levels ever, and a  
recent poll taken for the newspaper El Pais found that 54% of the  
respondents considered the political climate bad.
	The government and its backers are touchy about the bad press.   
Alfonso Guerra, vice chairman of the Socialist Workers' Party, said last  
week that criticism by "financial groups, the media and intellectuals"  
amounted to "questioning the democratic system."
	Despite the recent progress, Spain remains substantially poorer  
than its neighbors.  Per capita income is just 80 percent of the European  
Community average, and unemployment is nearly 18%.  The government  
predicts growth of just 1.5 percent this year--higher than some European  
economies but nowhere near enough to close the gap with prosperous nations  
to the north.
	Gonzalez has decided that Spain cannot afford to be left behind in  
the drive toward European union, and so he has commited the country to a  
painful process of making the economy "converge" with those of Germany and  
France.  This involves strict controls on government spending and the  
money supply, and sharply reduced inflation.
	Ruiz said wage increases that averaged 8.8 percent this year will  
have to be slashed, and labor laws will have to be changed to keep layoffs  
from falling unfairly on younger workers.  The government projects that  
unemployment will rise next year to nearly 20 percent, with overall growth  
of 1 percent.
	Britain, by contrast, decided that economic union with the rest of  
Europe was not worth swallowing such bitter medicine and instead has opted  
to promote growth.  But the government here seems convinced that Spaniards  
are more committed to the European ideal and will make needed sacrifices.
	"We have been left behind by the European train so many times,"  
Ruiz said.  "When you are left at the station, you lose.  This has been  
our story since we lost the empire centuries ago, and now we have another  
chance."
	No other political party has the standing to challenge the  
Socialists, and no other politician has the standing to challenge  
Gonzalez.  Oroganized labor provided a focus of opposition for a time, but  
the unions' power seems to be waning.
	But Lopez, the university rector, worries that Spain's recent  
progress has been too superficial to provide a steady foundation for the  
sacrifice that Gonzalez demands.  Bussinessmen still spend more time  
trying to get new tax breaks than trying to make their products better, he  
said.
	There is no tradition of mobility that would allow people to move  
to regions that offer better opportunities.
	"The changes need to go deeper," he said.  "Spain is still a  
country in the process of inventing itself."

Eugene Robinson, Washington Post Foreign Service

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Hala Eugenio, a seguir trabajando...
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