What do the Spanish think about a Brexit?

[Girlingfoss]

Except ones thinking of moving here, like myself. And for myself, they don't do anything daft like voting for an exit.

[katy]

If really interested in what the Spanish think here is a page of links to articles re. Brexit. Lots of comments below the articles.

Can't get the link to work but if you google "Inglaterra va a salir UE 2016" or similar you will get the articles with comments.

[markwilding]

It seems the only politcal group in Spain not supporting Camaron's changes are Podemos

[TerryC]

I often have a chat in my local builders merchants about the EU. The chap there hates it for the devastation it has caused to employment, especially for the young in Spain. When I explained to him about the referendum in the UK he said he hoped we voted to leave as it would probably bring about the end of the EU and Spain can once again revert to the peseta and run their own country.

To my mind one enlightened Spaniard.

[markwilding]

Oh. Now the EU is too blame for the high levels of unemployment in Spain.

[TerryC]

Hello Mark, I haven´t crossed swords with you for ages.

Yes the EU is stagnating with little or no growth and little prospect of any improvement in the foreseeable future. Unemployment throughout the southern countries has gotten much worse under the umbrella of the EU. It is so sad to see groups of unemployed youngsters hanging around with nothing to do. I know it is the same in Portugal, Italy and of course Greece.

The EU market place has been gradually shrinking for the last ten years and these countries need to look to the other 5.5 billion people in the world to expand their international export sales but can only negotiate free trade agreements outside of the EU.

The expensive EU dictatorship stifles trade and thus expansion of companies. Their energy policies make it difficult for EU companies to compete in the world market with competitive pricing of their products.

I could go on and on but to answer your comment, yes the EU is responsible for mass unemployment.

[markwilding]

You should stop reading stop reading UKIP rhetoric and come back into the real world. You obviously don't know what Spain was like pre EU.

[katy]

Actually it's true. Stats to prove it, did not come from UKIP. The EU has done Spain no favours, would have been better off out. All the money shoved at it went on vanity projects or in the hands of corrupt politicians.

[markwilding]

And the source of your statistics?

[Spud]

I am not politically minded but I have yet to see what good the EU has done for Britain apart from free trade which is what the first referendum was supposed to be about not a union with an ever increasing membership. When the EU was small with roughly equal economic members everything seemed okay but now that poorer countries are joining they all hope for more and more money being given to them from the richer countries who now cannot cope with the demand. It seems the people from the poorer countries flock to the richer for welfare, work and benefits, you can´t blame them for that but it is putting a strain on the wealthy countries.

As for the Spanish, mention the EU to any of the old men who sit around on benches in the parks and they spit on the ground. My next door neighbour even thinks that Spain was better off under Franco. It would seem that opinions differ wherever you live in Spain.

[katy]

And the source of your statistics?

I am quite sure you know as it has been discussed many times on BBC even this morning. Perhaps you should google yourself and work it out here is one.

http://www.global-vision.net/blogging-b ... st-economy

Interesting that the EUs share of the world market would be a few more percentage points less without the UK

[katy]

See there is a lot of discussion today of which MPs are in or out. Has the media forgot it is a referendum. They have one vote like everyone else. What difference does a few hundred unprincipled MPs make!

[markwilding]

Obviously if you get your figures from a group whose basic idea is this

Global Vision is a non-partisan campaign group that believes Britain needs to negotiate a looser, more modern relationship with the EU to reflect the rapidly changing world of the 21st century. The new relationship should be based on trade and mutual recognition, whilst opting out of political and economic union.

Non-partisan, it isn't because it quite clearly has a point of view on a subject that transcends political allegiances

Yes the EU is stagnating with little or no growth and little prospect of any improvement in the foreseeable future. Unemployment throughout the southern countries has gotten much worse under the umbrella of the EU. .

This article talks about market share, and any talk about growth is based on prediction, not facts. It's not really important who has the highest market share when talking about growth.

The EU'S economy grew over the last quarter and the growth has be slight but steady for over three years. However, in so as not to manipulate the figures, I will accept the USA'S has grown more, however the latest figure show a dramatic fall. China's grew even more but at a just about the slowest rate than the previous 3 years. I could say that Chin's growth is sluggish compared to previous quarters to put a negative slant on it but in fact it was more than Double the EUS and USA's growth.

Again the figures don't tell the whole story, If the UK economy increased at China's rate, it couldn't be sustained and would cause major overheating and another major recession.
Almost all western countries have had recession and slow growth over the last 5 years caused by different factors. A major factor being the banks Not the EU.

It also has to be expected that in the next thirty years market share will change and the emerging economies will grab a larger and larger share of the market.

[katy]

Try Eurostat official figures. Even worse now.

However, we are off topic remember.....what do the Spanish think

[markwilding]

We are talking about growth not market share.

Even then, looking at that site Unemployment levels fell in the last quarter

Unemployment in Spain was caused by this PP government through its austerity measures put in place to resolve problems that were the fault of poor political decisions by successive governments.

There has always been extremely high levels of unemployment in Spain going back to the mid to late eighties, years before they joined.

[katy]

You can't stop the rudeness can you. I knew what I was talking about. As I said, OFF TOPIC

[Pamela1]

We are talking about growth not market share.

There has always been extremely high levels of unemployment in Spain going back to the mid to late eighties, years before they joined.

Mark, i would not argue with your statement above because i would not know but what i do know and remember is the village in the Granada hills where my OTH once lived and his family still lives...everyone worked, the village was vibrant during the eighties. The youth are now none existent and the village is a retirement home.

Those who are general tradesmen, builders, joiners etc etc have either no work or very little and this negative situation has many thinking the future is hopeless. Everyone suffers, the bars, the shops. it goes on.

Ask any of them what they think about the EU and they scowl, then the usual angry stories about the Polish, Romanians who came in their droves and were prepared to work for a pittance are repeated and repeated..not to mention the robbing and gang crime groups that emerged from some of the incomers..

I can partly understand where they are coming from because much the same has happened here.

[Devils Advocate]

And I'd echo that summary too, exactly how the Spanish people we know call it Pamela.

[katy]

It is estimated that 16 countries would like to leave if given a chance of a referendum. I think Spain wouldn't have had so deep a recession if not in the Euro. I also remember steep increases in prices when they ditched the peseta. The U.K. Came out of recession better because it had it's own currency controls.The EU average for unemployment is around 11%.

[markwilding]

Back to the blame game again

I agree that a major reason that the UK came out of recession was due to not being in the Euro. It benefited from a weak pound.

As far as village life is concerned, again it's very easy to blame the EU. However, the problem goes much deeper than that and the movement of people away from the villages to the cities causing their slow death and which started decades before their EU membership. Even during the end of Franco's time this started to be a problem.

Demographically Spain is completely different from the UK and for this reason cannot be compared to it on the same basis

It is also actually absurd to say that Spain was better off before 1990. Living standards have risen enormously since then. The EU making Spain drop the import taffifs that existed has meant they had to become more competitive.