Word: spain
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...conservative tide is running in some parts of Europe, Spain certainly is bucking it. For the first time since the Civil War, Socialists are in power, having trounced a collapsing center and a regrouping right in national elections in October. Last month their popularity was confirmed in municipal elections, to the delight of Prime Minister Felipe González, who likes to say that "Spain is calm, calmer than at any time since the death of General Franco." The political honeymoon still lasts, and when the boyish 41-year-old Socialist leader flies to Washington next week on his first...
With a 12% inflation rate and unemployment at a punishing 17%, Spain is by no means without difficulties. But at every turn, González has made it clear that he does not intend to impose rash solutions. For example, he has not considered nationalizing anything more than the country's electric grid system. Nor has he been tempted to push for an expansionary economic policy along the lines of the French Socialists during their first year in power...
...foreign affairs, González has been remarkably discreet on the contentious issue of Spain's membership in NATO, which remains frozen, even though Spain's Foreign and Defense Ministers have been attending alliance meetings over the past two weeks. The most conspicuous diplomatic departure has been the Socialists' emphasis on Latin America and what the government calls the "historic Hispanic link." Accordingly, González has paid increasing attention to strife-torn Central America, where his views diverge sharply from those of the Reagan Administration. During an eight-day tour of the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Venezuela...
...Spain's mood. There is a certain dose of optimism in the country based more on realism than on false expectations. At the risk of some unpopularity, the government has carried out a policy of dealing with real problems, even with a certain amount of harshness. Our devaluation of the peseta and the increase in gasoline prices are examples. This approach has not been unpopular. Quite the contrary: what would be unpopular would be to tell the country the opposite of what is really happening...
...overhaul of the economy based on industrial restructuring and reforms in the social security system. As for comparisons between the French and Spanish Socialist governments, there are quite a lot of differences. The change in France, with a solidly consolidated democracy, signified an alternation between left and right. In Spain, the most important thing was that it affirmed an alternation of power in democracy. Most important, in Spain it represents a generational change. The government has an average age that places it in the post-Civil War generation. This is a sign of popular aspiration: the Spanish people wants...