May 15, 2013

The MP-203 highway in Madrid was meant to be a busy bit of asphalt. The intention was to ease traffic congestion on a stretch of the A-2 highway to Barcelona between Alcalá de Henares and the capital. But the MP-203, after an investment of 70 million euros between 2005 and 2007 by Cintra, the company contracted to build it, is today a road without end, winding...

May 6, 2013

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on Monday defended himself from criticism within the ranks of his own ruling Popular Party saying there was no other way of avoiding a full-blown bailout than to renege on the PP’s electoral promise not to raise taxes. “We didn’t want to raise taxes but last year Spain was on the point of coming unstuck, and a policy of increasing...

May 3, 2013

Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría on Friday confirmed that Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy will meet with labor union and business leaders on May 16 in an attempt to broker a consensus on how to tackle the crisis, which has seen the economy in the doldrums since 2008 and unemployment rising to a record 27 percent. Sáenz de Santamaría said the unions...

May 3, 2013

Barons and ministers from the Popular Party (PP) came out in support of Mariano Rajoy on Thursday, after critical comments about his management of the crisis were made the day before by former Madrid premier and current PP leader in the region, Esperanza Aguirre. Justice Minister Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón and the head of the Catalan Popular Party, Alicia...

May 3, 2013

If elections were held now, the ruling Popular Party would lose its absolute majority in the region of Madrid, its bastion of support in Spain, for the first time in 10 years. At the same time, rather than advancing at the expense of the PP, the opposition Socialist Party (PSOE) would suffer its worst election result in the existence of the region. The main...