On more than one occasion we have heard and read that any type of crisis has its positive aspects. And that is that when people suffer from their grave situation, they turn in their heads and they will have the “opportunity” to invent new projects. That may be the case, but I do not believe that these new “opportunities” are available to all people and businesses. The “opportunity” of many companies will materialise in the workers, leaving some workers in the street and cutting wages to others. One of the most painful examples will be Telefónica in Spain. The new “opportunity” will bring you more benefits, but it will leave more than six thousand workers on the street; and those who are left out of work will charge public money. Here is the example of a unique “opportunity”!

When the European, Spanish or anywhere authorities tell us that hard economic measures must be taken to guarantee the welfare state, they are thinking of deceiving us. Do not hesitate. Because European Social Democracy told us a long time ago that if we wanted to see the welfare state of our countries strengthened, the most developed and the most man-made in the world, we had to enter the euro zone, to do so, in the early 1990s, when Social Democracy was in power in Spain, the requirements of the Maastricht Convention had to be met. As a result, conditions for access to unemployment aid were tightened, retirement pensions were made more difficult, etc. ; that is, the economic situation deteriorated from years before the popular classes, which were allocated less of the redistribution of income, while the richer became richer.

Furthermore, in the last years of the last century, on the occasion of the entry into force of the euro, a stabilisation plan was established for public budgets for the Member States. Of course, not at the request of the citizens through the elections, but of the EU’s senior officials who were not elected by the citizens, leaving the weakness of European democracy in sight. As a result, social spending would fall again and that situation, among us, led to a deterioration of the health and educational system that would be aggravated.

In the first decade of this century, the situation of individuals in general was made possible by economic recovery. In fact, both ordinary consumers and public institutions have been able to maintain their level of expenditure, but totally indebted, and an economy that cannot last long on such weak bases. In addition, before the beginning of the crisis, in the era of prosperity, fiscal measures were taken that should never be done: reducing taxes, rather than doing it the other way round. For all these reasons, tax revenues have been reduced and governments only need to reduce the level of spending if they want to meet the demands of the markets. Therefore, our welfare state will undoubtedly receive a new beating that is already being felt in health, education, retirement pensions and many other social areas.

It should also be noted that these austerity measures were not included in the programme of the Spanish Socialist Party. Zapatero was convinced that his political party would maintain the autonomy of economic institutions. But in May of last year “we fell on the horse” and embraced the neoliberal premises, as many Social Democrats did before him. From there, without hindrances, which is ultimately the objective of European Social Democracy: to gradually bring the welfare state down the road of disappearance.