Why Spain is not Greece
If you spend time in the Spanish region of Andalusia – awash with its Moorish inheritance, olive groves, and wineries – there are moments when it is easy to lose sight of the incredible pace of Spain’s development in the three and a half decades since Franco died.
Such is the beauty of the countryside and its towns and cities. In particular, I had never been to Seville, never witnessed the graceful mass of its cathedral with its extraordinary onrush within, of bay after bay of rococo tributes to assorted views of Jesus and the saints. The Spanish have woken up to the reality that fewer people go to church so they don’t litter their cathedrals with ugly wooden chairs – they let the stone floors do the talking.
Then there is the city’s Alcazar, once the capital of the caliphate after the 13th century rulers split with Baghdad. Yes, all that Islamic influence this far into Europe. And within this fortress, as spectacular a concentration of Islamic architecture and sculpture I have ever seen outside Esfahan.
But I digress; because it is not the art – which does its best to hold a small candle to Greece’s world beating treasures – it is present day Spain’s development. This is a country that works, despite all its economic and financial woes.
In the past five days I have travelled by air, by car and by rail. I have stopped in Cadiz, Jerez, Seville and Madrid. Each of them street clean, squeaky clean. In each the interface between rail and car and air, worked perfectly. The motorways are well-maintained, the high speed trains which the Spanish regard as the norm, run on time. The two airports I made use of – Madrid and Seville, worked like clockwork.
Basket case
Contrast this with tumbled down Greece. Development has been gnawed away by institutional corruption. Derelict buildings (post classical) are everywhere. The streets are filthy; the boats to the islands are often elderly and poorly maintained.
Hence Greece, the basket case. Hence only yesterday, the ratings agencies (who believes them, given their record – but what other measure do we have) banked on Spain somehow coming through this crisis. Actually I sense that both will. But Greece will effectively be run out of Frankfurt and Brussels whilst Spain will be allowed to do what it knows best – run Spain.
In Spain the criminality was in finance and property, above all. But the public services have blossomed and contributed to bringing the country into the 21st century. Undoubtedly they will suffer and the country with them. Those who work in those services are already suffering too. But the infrastructure that has been built in boom times will survive and sustain.
In Greece, the tax-evasion, and corruption were everywhere in public life and in private. Practically no infra-structure was invested in beyond the Olympic paraphernalia which today leaves a legacy of little more than a functioning airport and some wasting athletic assets.
My sense is that Spain has the ingredients to make it. My reporting brushes with Greece leaves only one question, does Europe have the appetite to help build it up from the ground? Europe has got thus far in more than half a century by fudge.
There’s not much evidence that the age of fudge is yet over. So somehow maybe Greece can make it too.
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