When Leo Pujals, a migrant from Cuba, opened his first TelePizza shop in Madrid in 1988, promising hot pizza delivered by motorcycle, skeptics scoffed that he stood little chance in a country where languid meals are a part of the culture. Today, Pujals chuckles as his chain prepares to open TelePizza store No. 440. Spain has modernized enormously in the past decade. Spain's economy, like Pujals' pizzas, is confounding its critics. Long regarded as the sick man of Europe and the country least likely to qualify for the first round of European monetary union in 1999, Spain has been transformed into one of Europe's most buoyant economies.
Business is radically better.
More importantly, Spain has become the first country in Europe where brisk domestic demand instead of exports is fueling the economic rebound, a sign that a five-year slump is ending. That doesn't mean all's going well for all of them, but the society as a whole trusts that the future is going to be better than the present. For Spain, where politicians have a tendency to act on short-term interests, this is a very good thing. For example, the nation's civil servants reluctantly accepted a one-year pay freeze imposed by the Government this year to help meet its deficit goals. The number of strikes has fallen sharply in the private sector, and employers' groups are hailing the flexibility being shown by the country's two leading labor unions.