What is wrong with politics in Spain?

[Perikles]

The answer to the thread title is given in this article in El País, which argues that the corruption in Spain and Mexico are identical.

This says it all (my bold, a chorizo is a spiced pork sausage but also a petty thief)

Para las grandes masas del continente europeo da igual que esté Franco en el poder, o Felipe González, o Aznar, o Zapatero, o Rajoy; no se enteran ni les interesa enterarse de si el Gobierno de turno es dictatorial, inepto, eficaz, honesto o corrupto. La Marca España es lo que siempre fue. Representa un país donde hay sol, siestas, bailes, tapas, cerveza barata, alegre vida nocturna, violencia contra animales, gente simpática y chorizos. Chorizos en ambos sentidos de la palabra, claro. Se da por hecho, sin indagar en la cuestión en lo más mínimo, que los políticos —da igual que ocupen cargos en Madrid o en la alcaldía playera— son corruptos y pueblerinos.

[Janet]

This is the bit that jumped out at me ... the summing up of the article:

El golpe hoy es a la moral de los españoles. El sueño de que viven en un país moderno europeo se ha esfumado. Y lo que sienten hoy es vergüenza, humillación, rabia, decepción. Nada más.

bien dicho.

[Janet]

Caso Bárcenas in the beeb again ...

[Guanche]

I wonder what the Queen of Europe (aka Frau Merkel) is really thinking? I would hazard a guess at 'Oh crap!'

[Janet]

OK I haven't heard of the like of this since C4BC Athenian lawcourts.

The book doesn't exist, never has, and it's not my writing in it anyway ...

WTF ... the Chinese laundry defence? Aristotle put paid to that in the 300s BC by showing people how to see through it ...

but it's still used in Spain.

FFS

[Nova]

I suspect it isn't so much that people can't see through it as that they can but there's nothing they can do about it...

[Janet]

But it's blatant ... there is absolutely no attempt even to try to conceal the fact that it's blatant ...

The west's humanities are based on ancient Greece's. Everyone in the humanities in western Europe knows about Aristotle's Rhetoric (and other works too of course). No-one uses this sort of defence any more unless they are joking, or prepared to be ridiculed.

In Spain it's seemingly used seriously.

This is unique. There must be something they can do about it. Nowhere else has this problem, or at least not to this extent.

[Guanche]

But isn't this just the Latin way? He who shouts loud enough always wins a Latin argument! He who is most aggressive always wins a Latin argument and of course He who tells the most blatant lies always wins a Latin argument.

[El Profesor]

But it's blatant ... there is absolutely no attempt even to try to conceal the fact that it's blatant ...

The west's humanities are based on ancient Greece's. Everyone in the humanities in western Europe knows about Aristotle's Rhetoric (and other works too of course). No-one uses this sort of defence any more unless they are joking, or prepared to be ridiculed.

In Spain it's seemingly used seriously.

This is unique. There must be something they can do about it. Nowhere else has this problem, or at least not to this extent.

This is because of the arrogance and sense of impunity of this self protecting parasitic elite.
And the popular media is manipulated.
People tend to expect it of them too; the population are not politicised ..... after 40 years of vicious dictatorship it becomes enough that they are not as bad as what came before.

But it has to be said that this Barcénas chap is a prize bastard. An evil bastard amongst bastards. The sad thing is that it takes such a blatant monumental fucking bastard to get a reaction.

[Janet]