'EU Membership Perpetuates the Crisis': Spaxit May End Spain’s Economic Woes

Spain faces the real possibility of a third general election in a single year after the country’s main Socialist party and leftwing and nationalist parties rejected another term for caretaker Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, whose Popular Party won the August 31 elections, the newspaper Izvestia wrote.

Many experts blame the current political stalemate  primarily on social instability and the ongoing economic crisis.

‘During Mariano Rajoy’s premiership unemployment in Spain has gone up. Many people blame it on the government’s ineffective social policy, but I believe that it also stems from the economic crisis now happening elsewhere in Europe,” Alexander Sogomonyan, an expert on global problems at Moscow State University, told the newspaper.

He added that, with the current balance of political forces in Spain, the outcome of a third parliamentary election was not clear because, even though the Popular Party and the Socialists both support the idea of European integration, their clashing domestic policy agendas could have a potentially destructive effect on the country.

Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez has described the country’s budget deficit of 5 percent of the GDP and the state debt now approaching 100 percent as “a graphic example of the Popular Party’s disastrous budget and tax policy.”

Vasily Koltashev, Director of the Center of Economic Studies in Moscow, warned that the main parties’ unwillingness to resolve the current economic crisis could enflame nationalistic sentiment and set off a new wave of protests.

“The economic situation remains lackluster with unemployment exceeding 25 percent and no light still seen at the end of the tunnel. The only possible option left for Spain is to leave the EU, but the problem with Spanish politicians is that they stand for European unity which, in turn, perpetuates the crisis the country is going through,” Koltashev noted.

He added that Spaxit could help the government improve the social and economic situation in the country, free up its customs policy, better protect against economic competition (primarily German), roll back social spending cuts and allow it to print more money to stabilize the economy.

“There are many mechanisms to change the situation for the better, but EU membership only perpetuates the current crisis, which in turn, will strengthen the hand of the nationalists and bring about a new, more dangerous, wave of public discontent,” Koltashev emphasized.