By Spanish economist and entrepreneur José Ramón Riera
In my first article for Brussels Report, I take a look at the track record of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who many have began to dub Pedro I “The Defeated”, given how he has lost all the regional elections since coming to power in June 2018.
The problem with Sánchez is not just the plagiarism with his doctoral thesis in economics, which shows that he knows nothing about this subject, but also, which is worse, that he is surrounded by people who do not know anything about it either. As a result, Spain has a serious economic problem.
I have been diving into the statistics of the European Union and Eurostat, which is a tremendously interesting source of information and which, instead of giving my opinion without data, allows me, as always, first to analyse the data, secondly to present them as I think they are of interest to readers and thirdly, to write about them.
What’s more, and I want to be honest with the readers, I have decided to demonstrate with numbers the incompetence of Sánchez, Calviño (the Minister of Economy), María Jose Montero (the Minister of Finance) and the rest of the bunch, because someone needs to do it.
Con 97.000 millones de ingresos por impuestos y 15.500 más que el año pasado, nos vamos este año a 30.000 millones más de deuda.
Batimos récord en ingresos y a su vez en deuda</strong> https://t.co/znrJrDtNm4— Desnudando el Euro (Jose Ramon Riera) (@jrriera22) July 26, 2022
Spain: the economy with the lowest GDP per capita growth since 2017
Making a comparative analysis of Ireland with Spain, I discovered that, while during the last four years, Ireland increased its per capita income by €22,160, in Spain, this merely increased by €490. After reviewing the numbers, lest my bad faith had led me to make a mistake, I came to the conclusion that there was no mistake, unfortunately, and it was true that thanks to the Almighty Sánchez Spain is the country that has grown the least in per capita income in Europe.
There is not a single country that has done worse, so our “humble” Prime Minister has the honour of having led us, with the help of his team, to a result whereby the income of Spaniards has grown the least in the European Union since he took office.
Hereunder is the table, so readers can see what a socialist government can do, when it is governing with communists and when it is supported by pro-independence madmen and parties associated with ETA murderers:
This table makes clear Ireland has achieved the second highest per capita income level in Europe, but also the one that has grown the most in absolute value, with a wealth creation of 22,160€. It is followed by Luxembourg, which is the country with the highest per capita income in the European Union, creating almost €17,000 in wealth for its citizens, and in third place is Denmark, with an increase in income of €6,210 over the last four years.
The EU average has been an increase of €2,950. Above these figures are the Netherlands, Estonia, Lithuania, Belgium, Finland, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Latvia, Germany, Sweden and Austria.
The Eurozone, which has grown less than the EU, has grown by an average of €2,780 in wealth over this period. Above this figure are Romania, Hungary and Poland.
Below the Eurozone average are the rest of the countries.
France, only booked a €2,290 gain, Portugal €1,510, Italy €1,100 and even Greece €690.
🤔 El análisis de @jrriera22 | 'La fiesta del gasto del Gobierno crece sin parar: 217.000 millones en mayo'
«No sé si en el Gobierno de Sánchez hay alguno que se está forrando, pero lo que sí sé es que están derrochando»
https://t.co/3BatNExL84— El Debate (@eldebate_com) August 4, 2022
A shameful legacy
Personally, I have never been so ashamed, of course not of being Spanish, which I am proud of, but of having a government that places us at the bottom of Europe. The big European economies, which are not doing well either, are still growing much more than Spain.
Germany is growing seven times more than Spain. France, which is a country in decline, due to Macron’s disastrous management, is growing 4.5 times more than Spain. Portugal, also governed by socialists and ranked 24 out of 27, is growing 3 times more than Spain. Italy, which until Draghi arrived was a country adrift and which is facing an election once again, is growing 2.2 times more than Spain and even Greece, the country most reviled by its terrible rulers, has managed to grow 40% more than Spain.
I imagine that some intern, or some advisor or, perhaps, some state employee has also looked at these numbers, while passing them on to the Spanish leadership, but what amazes me is that this has not come to public light, that no one has written about it and, above all, that if anyone knows about it, they try to keep it quiet.
Where are you going to take us with your management, Pedro?
As the much admired Francisco de Quevedo, a Spanish author from the 17th century, the Golden Age of Spanish literature, used to say:
“La soberbia nunca baja de donde sube, pero siempre cae de donde subió”
This has been translated as follows: When a person is extremely proud and arrogant he won’t get off his high horse voluntarily, but sooner or later someone will prove him wrong or make him have to concede something, and that will be an even harder blow for him.
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