GENERAL elections aside, Spain’s role on the global political stage is set to be more crucial than ever in 2019 – and, especially in terms of its membership of the European Union, the country will be ‘very much in demand’.
This week, the Royal Elcano Institute presented its seventh annual report coordinated by political scientist Ignacio Molina, Spain in the world in 2019: Perspectives and challenges.
“Spain needs to accept that it is one of the largest countries in the EU and among those with the greatest diplomatic capacity, and will need to accept its responsibilities,” Molina writes.
“There is going to be a great demand for more and more of Spain.”
But what does this mean for Spain?
Firstly, according to the report, 2018 was a particularly turbulent political year within and outside Spain’s borders – in the case of the latter, with the Catalunya separatist issue ongoing, and having finally reached the trial stage in the Supreme Court, and also, the socialist government’s ‘Parliamentary weakness’, given its very slim majority of less than a quarter of seats, meaning it has been potentially held back by the ever-present possibility of its initiatives being voted down by the opposition and curtailing its ability to ‘take on a greater international presence.
But current president Pedro Sánchez and his foreign affairs minister, Catalunya-born Josep Borrell, ‘are showing a greater inclination than their predecessors towards diplomatic activism’, speaking out against world inequality, being more proactive – especially in the face of Brexit, Donald Trump and the refugee crisis, for which Spain has been upheld as an excellent example of cooperation – and refusing to be shrinking violets.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com