Foreign Policy

I have the feeling that our presidents, especially the socialists, think that complex things are easily solved and that in "two afternoons and out of school hours" one can learn how to become an expert on such matters and thus be able to handle them without difficulty, even against the criteria of the real experts on the subject included in their own government. It was in this spirit that José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero received his doctorate from Jordí Sevilla a few years ago. And that is how it was; nobody doubts that he put us through the biggest economic crisis so far known, and it took us more than six years to start sticking our heads out, after many sacrifices, cutbacks by other governments, who had not had a watchful eye on that funeral and with much effort from everyone, wasted and left to escape like the detritus that disappears down the toilet pipes.

His most distinguished student and follower, the illustrious Pedro Sanchez, in his eagerness to surpass the master and as he already believed and said he knew about economy, he did not need such lessons; although as his studies were mediocre and his thesis false and copied, this time the economic crisis in which he has got us, is many times higher than the previously mentioned and thanks to his initial management we have the privilege of being economically the second in the tail of the world list, only surpassed negatively by Argentina, a country example of continuous disasters in this field, which we have to see how it goes.
This gentleman, in his desire to play a witch and a trickster at the same time, looked for another drawer not easy to play and self erect in the role of leader, teacher and example of the whole world in international politics. To do this, he tucked himself in with Borrell, also known as the false whip of Catalan separatism; a man of straw, who lies more than he talks and who was even expelled from the government and from Spain by order of those of his land and verb, although he was sent to an armchair where he charges much more, has more official than real packaging, and where he can push around and leave Europe at the height of the bitumen; Something that he has been trying so hard to do since he took office and I believe that he will never give up, no matter how much his attention is drawn by the higher European bodies and authorities to whom he resists giving an account of his strange and resounding cronyism and outlandish partisanship with those countries that interest him and the Spanish Government; above all, on the other side of the pond, those that the EU wanted to keep at bay or wants to keep away from certain harmful influences on these lands.

Stripped of Borrell, Sánchez found a lady for the position, Arancha González Laya; a person who, although she knows some things, above all about international economy and speaks excellent English, the suit he was given, the one for politics in the International Arena (with capital letters), is too big for him no matter how much the dressmakers and couturiers of his Ministry in the Viana Palace want it and try to make it smaller. She doesn't know where the wind is blowing; she arrives late to almost all the places or, on the contrary, she anticipates without necessity (Gibraltar); she promises incredible things far from reality (the return of the tourists at the beginning of the summer); she is always caught unprepared; she lies more than she talks; she confuses the flags of the friendly or allied countries (Italy and Mexico); she is ignored from all sides and, in this constant nothingness, she is even unable to detect the slightest hint that the Americans and Morocco - the neighboring country, which is traditionally the protagonist of many grievances and has recently increased them, All of them -who were spoiled or supported by the U.S.- had been plotting an exchange of favors with Israel for weeks, in order to give Spain a stab in the back or "the tip" in all its prestige, interests and the role that our country can and should play in that arena and place, over the former Saharawi colony and according to the UN itself. 

As a consequence of that, a summit with Morocco has been postponed sine die for February, which, in spite of having an immediate date, had no agenda or future because we so often disregarded it. However, there are also other reasons to justify this postponement, ranging from taking advantage of the situation of danger at the time of health, the rampage of a government of sassy tongues in which everyone says what they want, think or as it suits them, or even that the King of Morocco himself does not want to see or paint President Sanchez, as a way or answer to collect the many disdain for him or to leave him in a situation of regional inferiority. We already know which of these is the one that the fallacious government has chosen to justify another slip-up in its foreign relations that does not raise its head and goes very badly.  

Relations with the United States could not be worse from the very moment that both leaders began to push their respective policies. As a consequence of certain and relevant bravado and rudeness on our part, Trump lifted the tariffs of almost all countries, except Spain, which is not by pure chance; he called our attention publicly at the NATO summits and put great obstacles in the way of Spaniards travelling and obtaining visas to travel or stay in the US to study or work. To have confronted Goliath on several occasions, without even having the coolness to throw a stone at him and to have despised the traditional relations and channels of friendship and cooperation was a serious mistake between two insolent people; but also, a very risky act on our part and, consequently, now it seems that the time has come to pay the bill for so much wrongdoing and lack of care, even though the American president -who resists like a bellyful cat- is in his last acts, picking up the pieces and has to spend this Christmas alone in the White House.

In the management of the pandemic that is ravaging the world in a very singular way, the government's bad management and its delays in the way of acting to tackle the evil, together with the serious disdain and false comparisons with all the others, in the mouth of the president himself, have not helped the minister to wash away even a little the very poor image that we are giving among our European allies and even at the global level. The steps taken abroad for the purchase of the urgent and very necessary material could not have been worse, useless, one of the most expensive, and even many of them outside of a total legality. The Chinese themselves with their special market and the "Spanish friends" who have acted and have profited from public money as "intermediaries", have deceived us as Chinese, as was said in the past, although I think that was never true.

There are still hundreds of millions of dollars in purchases that are not serious, some of them non-existent, not very legal and even with some embezzlement to be cleared up. I am very surprised that in these matters the network of Economic and Commercial Offices that Spain, like any advanced country, has within the framework of the Permanent Diplomatic Missions, were not used, as would be natural. These offices, councils or delegations of industry and commerce serve to facilitate and speed up the sale and purchase of their own products or those that are needed for our economy or to quickly alleviate an urgent national need. These offices are under the control of the Ambassadors and depend on both the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism.

I do not know if at that time, Ministers Illa, Reyes Maroto and Laya knew of their existence and the good general functioning of these offices; but I am very much afraid that there is something strange because it is vox populi that some of the contracts signed were false, several were made on the sly, many were dark or with a certain nocturnalness and quite a few of them with really strange friends and businessmen who are totally removed from the sector or activity. This situation leads us to think very badly and I believe that, now that the deep and intense investigations for possible commissions in foreign affairs by the King Emeritus are so fashionable, this issue too, because it is official money and because of its total amount, with the same drive and zeal that they have been demonstrating, should be investigated by the Attorney General's Office.   

The role and the image of the economic disaster we are going through in Spain, with a tendency to get much worse, according to the indicators of the sector at a national and international level, and only surpassed by Italy in the EU, is very sad, proper in most of its responsibility and very dark to be able to hide it or easily clean it up. This government and all those responsible at home and abroad have remained silent and impassive in the face of the evolution of the facts or events and the repercussions of the erroneous measures adopted so far to somewhat mitigate their effects and on the barbarity of those that, it seems and are announced, will be adopted with the new budgets. These measures are totally contrary to those adopted by the countries around us, with little or no consensus and are typical of the imagination of a trilier, his close companion with a ponytail in the wind and two ladies who are totally mistaken or, what is worse, cancelled out in their economic ideology, who try to show the same little ball in the three cups at the same time, selling smoke with that which they do not yet have, which should arrive on time and without urgency, if all the expectations placed on them are fulfilled and provided that no other new obstacle appears that puts all this scaffolding in danger.

We have become absolute beggars, we live with our hand outstretched and begging for the alms that may come to us; without our word, specific weight or ideas to solve the problem, little or nothing can be worth or much to contribute; this very week we have just verified that, after days of much uncertainty, our future was hanging on a very fine thread, sold and in the hands of the negotiations and efforts of France and above all, of Germany so that they are the ones who, finally, convince the unruly ones and can save us.   
Our mania for going it alone, for not playing the role that really corresponds to us and that everyone expects us to play in the EU and especially in its relations with Latin America is pathetic and turns our diplomacy into a loose verse that, in addition to not fulfilling what is expected or required, often acts in the opposite direction to that followed or proclaimed by others.

The image given by an ex-president of the Spanish government, Zapatero, self-appointed against the whole world, less than a gang of mafiosi who took advantage of him, in a kind of "international mediator" without any mandate from an international organization; repudiated by the majority of Venezuelans and accompanied by the worst bunch of those lands in the acts in support of a tyrant and dictator like Maduro, is sad, very painful and does us all a lot of harm. But, it should be emphasized, that this stain is not only due to the fact that Zapatero exercises this role on a personal level - with the almost certainty of spurious and hidden interests and agenda - but also because he receives the shameful and silent support implicit in the government which, impassive in its gestures, over that area drags and maintains a very erratic, highly incomprehensible and certainly singular foreign policy.

Minister Laya has not been able to take advantage of the European privileges and initiatives for Spain agreed upon in the Brexit negotiations on the future of Gibraltar. On her own initiative and apparently without anyone from the EU asking her to do so, months ago she set out to meet Minister Picardo one-on-one in a bilateral meeting. From that dust, although it was denied, comes this mud, and I am not at all clear on what will remain of the issue of sovereignty, the crossing of borders and the rights of Spaniards working on the Rock; as well as the tributes of the many and dirty businesses generated there, at the doors of Spain, without any repercussions for our coffers and many other things.   

Our role, figure and prestige in NATO, is merely residual and is not less thanks to the good effort and image of our soldiers - poorly paid and what will be around them - who with quite obsolete material, make with care and generosity in their repeated rotations going from here to there with hardly any time to rest in Spain. We are the country with a certain economic and military entity that spends the least on defense in the whole of NATO and there is no sign that this will change sooner or later. For purely political reasons, we abandon our allies as soon as the danger begins, or when it is perceived that it will come. We do not promote the armament industry or the naval industry, we lose contracts in this sector because we leave the Americans stranded in agreed missions that could serve us as a display or watchtower of our material and we do not exploit other types of capabilities in instruction and training in the maneuvering camps that we jealously guard without hardly using internationally and whose number is reduced day by day because Mr. Sánchez needs them to negotiate dark and spurious support for his budgets, those that will do so much damage to Spain. 

We are not called to anything important outside the home; in foreign policy we are like a freak that almost everyone despises or turns away just in case;  someone who constantly has in his head the tremendous obsession of pretending to be, seeks to rub shoulders with the most important ones even if only for a fleeting photo and who loves to appear and boast of his physical presence in various forums, even if only as a facade, at a high real price or as a result of a particular invitation of dubious cost and value, without being granted the use of the word, voice or vote in the debates or conclusions of that forum or entity. 
Throughout my professional life I have been fortunate enough to pass through destinations or missions and take international courses; situations, which have taught me how international relations are organized abroad. It has become very clear to me that they do it in a very different way than we do here; objectives are clearly marked, polished and defined; cooperation initiatives are sought and maintained that are of real interest and not just for appearances; lasting or really committed alliances are forged and chosen and it is a matter of resisting in them at all costs, practicing good example and with great dignity; they are aware that such relationships develop in a world of wolves and vermin where the weak are soon identified as the most propitiatory victims and where they seek to stand out from the aspirations of their companions at the side and table because they know that those who march much slower or behind still have much learning, experience and practice to develop. 

In the international arena, only those who can truly boast of their own causes or successes survive, and because their merits are great, true, tangible or well palpable, and not just a way of aspiring or wishing to achieve everything, but only in a conditional way, manner and manner. It is precisely in this aspect, where the famous sentence attributed to Abraham Lincoln reaches its full vigor and strength -although the true author seems to be Jacques Abbadie, a Protestant who uttered it in 1684- who textually says: "You can deceive some people all the time and all of them some time, but you cannot deceive all of them all the time". This sentence, slightly modified, served as a motto and guide to J. F. Kennedy, a great admirer of his predecessor, and that seems not to affect at all our present President because he has been doing it for years without anyone telling him anything, without losing support and hardly blinking.