“Se envaina la dignidad” [ .. ] “Ha demostrado poco interés por el resto del mundo” [ .. ] “Provincianismo” [ .. ]

[ .. ]

En un análisis muy matizado de la coyuntura nacional e internacional de España, el Economist continúa: “Veremos que hace para combatir la recesión” [ .. ] “En contraste con la diplomacia de sus predecesores, González y Aznar, que consiguieron para España un puesto de actor importante en Europa y puente con las Américas, la diplomacia de Zapatero se parece más las ambiciones de una Organización No Gubernamental que a la defensa fría de los intereses nacionales…”

… GROUCHO MARX got it wrong when he said that he didn’t care to belong to any club that would have him as a member. There are in fact few things in life so wounding to self-esteem as to be excluded from a gathering where you think you rightly belong. In an attempt to avoid such a fate, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Spain’s prime minister, has cast dignity aside and importuned all and sundry with a request to be invited to a conference on November 15th to discuss reforms to the international financial system.
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But if Spain is too easily overlooked, it is partly Mr Zapatero’s fault. [ .. ] But he has shown little interest in the world beyond Spain. In this parochialism he faithfully represents a country where decentralisation has brought benefits but narrowed political horizons. That does not reduce its potential cost.
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But the test will be whether the prime minister takes the steps needed to make the recession as short and mild as possible. These include structural reforms, especially of the labour market, to address Spain’s growing loss of competitiveness—it is no longer a cheap place to do business, and its workers are not especially productive.
[ .. ]
In contrasting ways both of his predecessors, Felipe González and José María Aznar, carved out a role for Spain as an important actor in Europe and as a bridge to the Americas. History may judge that Mr Zapatero was right to oppose the war in Iraq. But under him and his foreign minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, Spain’s foreign policy has resembled the pleadings of an NGO rather than the cool-headed pursuit of national interest by a country which wants to be treated as a world leader. In his first term, Mr Zapatero’s main initiative was a worthy but nebulous “Alliance of Civilisations”. In his second term he has set as a goal the worldwide abolition of the death penalty. [ .. ] [The Economist, 6/7 noviembre 08. After the fiesta].

Las negritas son mías.