Yes, Zapatero, you will go to the ball!

Spanish PM Jose Rodriguez Zapatero will attend the global financial shindig, to be held next week in Washington D.C. Spain's presence has been made possible by French President Sarkozy's offer to allow Zapatero to have one of the two seats he had to fill, in his capacity as EU President.

The last-minute success for Zapatero will be considered a real coup for the PSOE leader, who had staked his reputation on getting an invite to the summit, which President Bush had done much to prevent. Bush, in a classic display of the shallow vindictiveness that has marked his disatrous eight year presidency, seemed determined to stop Spain from attending because he and Zapatero have a strong mutual animosity, based on differing opinions on democracy and illegal war (Zapatero supports the first but opposes the second, a point of view Bush seems to find sickening).

Whether Zapatero's presence means anything for Spain other than yet another lost chance for the PP to win some political points (they don't have actual policies so they tend to thrive on mocking the PM's world standing), remains to be seen. I see little chance that the summit will come up with anything different to "more of the same", given that all the attendant parties are committed to the global capitalist system. It would have been nice if the organisers could have invited members of labour organisations but they probably wouldn't even have made it through immigration controls.

November 9, 2008 | Capital, Politics, Spain

Comments

4 Responses to “Yes, Zapatero, you will go to the ball!”

Graeme on November 9th, 2008 1:40 pm

There are indications that Zapatero's confidence that he would attend was based on an agreement with Sarkozy made several weeks ago. It was just a question of managing the announcement. I completely share your opinion on the worth of the conference, Bush and Sarkozy sorting out the problems of capitalism is a notion that just doesn't fit with the realities of the way they operate.

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Ian Llorens on November 9th, 2008 10:56 pm

Sarkozy, big disappointment.
I would have chosen Carla Bruni instead, and a DVD of Mr. Bean.

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Luis on November 11th, 2008 2:16 am

Spain is the 8ª World´s Economist !!

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raytibbitts on November 11th, 2008 7:33 pm

I was a little disappointed the Spanish government didn't call this what it is, a pointless photo-op, and take this opportunity to distance itself from these 'leaders' whose only consistent policies have been to continue to diminish their constituents' buying power by debasing their currencies, and to promote service-based economies over truly productive industries, (thus losing-out to places like China and India that still actually make stuff.)

Zapatero could have been 'above all this' and taken pride in not getting involved.

Well, at least this way he is able to show that Spain is a serious player in the world economy.

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