Capitalism Has Died

Heiberg, Morten

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-27343-9_9

Morten Heiberg⁴

Part of the book series: Security, Conflict and Cooperation in the Contemporary World ((SCCCW))

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Abstract

This chapter examines Spain’s attempts to renew the relationship with the rising powers in the East, especially China, and how these efforts also contributed decisively to the obtainment of Spanish membership of the G20 international forum. It also addresses the dramatic collapse of the Lehman Brothers and the impact of the financial crisis not only in Spain, but also upon Zapatero’s leadership of the Socialist government. Finally, it unveils the political process which led to the ousting of Moratinos as foreign minister in October 2010.

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Notes

1.
Moratinos Files: Interview, Moratinos.
2.
Ibid.
3.
“About the G20,” the official G20 Web site. See: https://www.g20.org/en/g20/what-is-the-g20.
4.
Moratinos Files: Interview, Moratinos.
5.
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, El dilema. 600 días de vértigo (Barcelona: Planeta, 2013), 269.
6.
Henry M. Paulson, Jr., On the Brink: Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Financial System (New York and Boston: Business Plus, 2010), 1, 363.
7.
Paulson, On the Brink, 375.
8.
Moratinos Files: Interview, Zapatero.
9.
Cf. “Sarkozy Stresses Global Financial Overhaul,” The New York Times, September 25, 2008. www.nytimes.com/2008/09/26/business/worldbusiness/26france.html.
10.
Moratinos Files: Interview, Zapatero.
11.
“Zapatero y Sarkozy cierran la polémica por su cruce de declaraciones sobre inmigración,” El Mundo, October 1, 2006. http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2006/09/30/espana/1159608605.html.
12.
“Einwanderern wurden Recht gegeben,” Kurier, November 27, 2006; “Moratinos defiende que regularización de inmigrantes fue un ‘éxito’ y un ‘modelo’ frente a los recelos de Francia,” Europa Press, August 27, 2007. http://www.europapress.es/sociedad/noticia-moratinos-defiende-regularizacion-inmigrantes-exito-modelo-frente-recelos-francia-20070827133402.html.
13.
Moratinos Files: Interview, Moratinos; “Nicolas Sarkozy y Rubalcaba acuerdan seguir colaborando contra ETA,” El Mundo, February 27, 2007. http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2007/02/27/espana/1172572892.html.
14.
Vaquer i Fanes, “Spain in the Mediterranean,” 147.
15.
Moratinos Files: Interview, Moratinos; “El PP dice que las críticas de Sarkozy se referían a las políticas del PSOE,” La Razón, April 6, 2012. See: https://www.larazon.es/historico/512-el-pp-dice-que-las-criticas-de-sarkozy-se-referian-a-las-politicas-del-psoe-NLLA_RAZON_448249.
16.
Zapatero, El dilema, 273–277.
17.
Ibid., 276.
18.
Ramón Pacheco Pardo, “Spain and Asia. Towards a Closer Relationship,” in Contemporary Spanish Foreign Policy, ed. David García Cantalapiedra and Ramón Pacheco Pardo (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2014), 172.
19.
Cf. “España hacia Asia y el Pacífico. Plan de acción 2005–2008,” MAEC, 2005, 45–80. Available on https://www.casaasia.es/documentos/plan_accion_asia2005.pdf.
20.
“España hacia Asia y el Pacífico,” 13.
21.
Moratinos Files: Interview, Salarich.
22.
Cited after “Spain’s Iraq Decision Angers Canberra,” ABC, April 19, 2004. http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2004/s1090514.htm.
23.
Anuario Internacional CIDOB, entry for June 20, 2007. https://www.cidob.org/publicaciones/documentacion/cronologias/australia_empresa_espanola_construira_buques_para_la_armada_australiana_20_junio_2007/(language)/esl-ES.
24.
Ibid., entry for November 24, 2008. https://www.cidob.org/publicaciones/documentacion/cronologias/australia_firma_de_un_memorando_de_entendimiento_en_materia_de_defensa_24_noviembre_2008/(language)/esl-ES.
25.
Moratinos Files: Interview, Salarich.
26.
Moratinos Files: Interview Moratinos. See also Zapatero, El dilema, 274–277.
27.
Zapatero, El dilema, 274.
28.
“Hu Jintao considera ‘todo un éxito’ la visita de Zapatero a China,” La Razón, April 14, 2011. https://www.larazon.es/historico/8660-hu-jintao-considera-todo-un-exito-la-visita-de-zapatero-a-china-NLLA_RAZON_370377.
29.
Mario Esteban, “Spain’s Relations with China: Friends but Not Partners,” Chinese Political Science Review, vol. 1, issue 2 (June 2016): 373–386. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41111-016-0019-x.
30.
Moratinos Files: Interview, Salarich.
31.
Ibid.
32.
Moratinos Files: Interview, Salarich; Jorge A. Rodríguez, “Bono se atribuye un éxito diplomático con Filipinas que Moratinos logró en septiembre,” El País, November 22, 2005. https://elpais.com/diario/2005/11/22/espana/1132614018_850215.html.
33.
Moratinos Files: Interview, Salarich.
34.
Rodríguez, “Bono se atribuye un éxito diplomático.”
35.
“La presidenta de Filipinas firma la ley que suprime la pena de muerte,” El Mundo, June 24, 2006. http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2006/06/24/internacional/1151122990.html.
36.
Paul Kennedy, Nemesis: Economic Policy Under the PSOE and the Road to Defeat (Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2013), 194.
37.
In actual fact, the IMF provides its member countries with short-term loans to fund current account deficits and authorizes changes in its exchange rates in case they suffer a so-called fundamental balance of payment disequilibrium, which tacitly corresponds to 3% in the basic balance deficit. Most economists perceive these fundamental disequilibria as long-term, structural disequilibria, which cannot be corrected by means of demand management policies within a reasonable span of time without producing harmful unemployment and excessive inflation. I owe this and other pieces of information used in this chapter to Manuel Sanchis i Marco, Associate Professor of Applied Economics at the University of Valencia and a former employee of the European Commission.
38.
Document of the Ministry of the Economy, dated January 8, 2009, cit. in Pedro Solbes, Recuerdos: 40 años de servicio público (Barcelona: Ediciones Deusto, 2013), 404.
39.
“Balance del primer año de Gobierno socialista,” Foro Europeo de Progreso, Brussels, 2005, 51. I’m indebted to Manuel Sanchis i Marco, who provided me with a copy of this report.
40.
Zapatero, El dilema, 316.
41.
Manuel Sanchis i Marco, “¿Minirecesión en primavera?,” El País, November 12, 2007. https://elpais.com/diario/2007/11/12/economia/1194822008_850215.html; ibid., “Negacionismo económico ‘versus’ credibilidad,” El País, July 25, 2008. https://elpais.com/diario/2008/07/25/opinion/1216936805_850215.html. See also ibid., El fracaso de las élites. Cómo reparar los daños de la Gran Recesión (Barcelona: Pasado & Presente, 2014), 170.
42.
Solbes, Recuerdos, 372.
43.
“100 Motivos,” Summary of the PSOE’s Electoral Program, 2008. http://web.psoe.es/source-media/000000119500/000000119694.pdf.
44.
Kennedy, Nemesis, 191.
45.
“Es un tema opinable si hay crisis o no hay crisis,” El País, June 29, 2008. See: https://elpais.com/diario/2008/06/29/domingo/1214711556_850215.html.
46.
Kennedy, Nemesis, 194–195.
47.
Solbes, Recuerdos, 369–370.
48.
“A European Economic Recovery Plan,” Communication from the Commission to the European Council, Brussels, November 26, 2008. http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/pages/publication13504_en.pdf
49.
Iñigo de Barrón, “El Banco de España quiere aclarar su papel en la crisis financiera,” El País, February 10, 2017. https://elpais.com/economia/2017/02/09/actualidad/1486670064_845752.html
50.
Cf. “Informe sobre la Crisis financiera y bancaria en España, 2008–2014,” Banco de España, Madrid, May 2017. https://www.bde.es/f/webbde/Secciones/Publicaciones/OtrasPublicaciones/Fich/InformeCrisis_Completo_web.pdf; Iñigo de Barrón, “El Banco de España elude la autocrítica en su explicación sobre la crisis financiera,” El País, June 16, 2017. https://elpais.com/economia/2017/06/15/actualidad/1497563172_277916.html.
51.
Sebastian Royo, Lessons from the Economic Crisis in Spain (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), 187.
52.
Ibid., 177, 188.
53.
Francisco Martí and Javier J. Pérez, “Spanish Public Finances Through the Financial Crisis,” Documentos de Trabajo (Banco de España), no. 1620 (2016): 14. Working Paper of the Spanish national bank, which however stresses that the paper does not necessarily express the view of the bank. See: https://www.bde.es/f/webbde/SES/Secciones/Publicaciones/PublicacionesSeriadas/DocumentosTrabajo/16/Fich/dt1620e.pdf.
54.
I’m grateful to Manuel Sanchis i Marco, who provided me with his views on this issue.
55.
Kennedy, Nemesis, 191.
56.
I’m grateful to Manuel Sanchis i Marco, who provided me with his views on this issue.
57.
Zapatero, El dilema, 185.
58.
Solbes, Recuerdos, 404–406, 408.
59.
Moratinos Files: Interview, Moratinos.
60.
See Zapatero, El dilema, chapter 1.
61.
Moratinos Files: Private information given to the author.
62.
Kennedy, Nemesis, 196–197.
63.
Zapatero, El dilema, 17–18.
64.
Ibid., 15, 31–32.
65.
Ibid., 23.
66.
Cited after Kennedy, Nemesis, 197.
67.
Moratinos Files: Interview, Moratinos.
68.
See, for example, “Alemania habla sin tapujos y’no descarta’ que el FMI salga en ayuda de Grecia,” ABC, March 20, 2010; “Bruselas presiona a Merkel para sacar adelante el rescate griego esta semana,” El País, March 23, 2010.
69.
Moratinos Files: Interview, Moratinos.
70.
Ibid.
71.
During this hectic week, Moratinos enjoyed the full support of his chief of staff, Agustín Santos Maraver, who encouraged the foreign minister to stand firm because he too saw the speculating markets as insatiable; Cf. Moratinos Files: Interview, Santos Maraver.
72.
Moratinos Files: Interview, Moratinos.
73.
Moratinos Files: Private information given to the author.
74.
Cf. Solbes, Recuerdos, 363–364.
75.
Moratinos Files: Private information given to the author.
76.
Cf. Anna Bosco, “The Long Adios,” 28.
77.
Martí and Pérez, “Spanish Public Finances Through the Financial Crisis,” 7.
78.
See Carmelo Adagio, “Youth Protests and the End of the Zapatero Government,” in Politics and Society in Contemporary Spain: From Rajoy to Zapatero, ed. Bonnie N. Field and Alfonso Botti (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), 143–160.
79.
This summary of the northern and southern perceptions of the crisis owes to Royo, Lessons from the Economic Crisis in Spain, 1–2.
80.
Ben S. Bernanke, The Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath (New York and London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2015), 569.
81.
Ibid., 569.
82.
“Spain Needs to Fulfil Its Commitment to Reverse Decline in Development Aid,” OECD Recommendation, March 4, 2016. http://www.oecd.org/newsroom/spain-needs-to-fulfil-its-commitment-to-reverse-decline-in-development-aid.htm.
83.
Moratinos Files: Interview, Moratinos.
84.
Paul M. Heywood, “Spain’s EU Presidency: Ambitions Beyond Capacity?,” Journal of Common Market Studies, vol. 49 (2011): 77–79.
85.
Cited in ibid., 83.
86.
This summary of the challenges of the Spanish presidency owes to A. Fernández Pasarín and F. Morata, “Spain at the Helm: The Spanish Presidencies of the Council of the European Union,” International Journal of Iberian Studies, vol. 28, issues 2 & 3 (2015): 163–164, 170; Ignacio Molina, “The 2010 Spanish EU Presidency: Trying to Innovate Europe in Troubled Times,” Swedish Institute for European Policy Studies, 1op (2010): 7, 30, 46; Laia Mestres, “Bilateralism in the Spanish Presidencies of the European Union: Alliances for the Development of European Foreign Policy,” International Journal of Iberian Studies, vol. 28, issues 2 & 3 (2015): 184; Heywood, “Spain’s EU Presidency: Ambitions Beyond Capacity?”, 82, 85. See also Pol Morillas i Bassedas, Carlos Carnicero Urabayen, “Europa y EE UU: hacia una relación pragmática,” Política exterior, vol. 25, issue 139 (Extra) (2011): 84–94.
87.
“Rajoy se queda a sólo 0,35 puntos de Zapatero,” El País, January 2, 2010.
88.
Cf. “Moratinos rechaza liderar la lista del PSOE a las elecciones municipales,” El Día de Córdoba. September 4, 2010.
89.
Moratinos Files: Interview, Moratinos.
90.
Moratinos Files: Biographical, personal note, October 21, 2010.
91.
Anna Bosco, “The Long Adios,” 28.
92.
This summary owes to ibid., 30–37.

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Department of English, Germanic and Romance Studies, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
Morten Heiberg

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Heiberg, M. (2019). Capitalism Has Died. In: Spain and the Wider World since 2000. Security, Conflict and Cooperation in the Contemporary World. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27343-9_9

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27343-9_9
Published: 05 October 2019
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
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