Last Sunday saw the election for the renewal of half the Senate in France, that is, a total of 179 seats voted by the officials ('grands électeurs') of 58 departments. Since 95% of these 'grands électeurs' are representatives elected in the last municipal elections of March, the electoral logic prevailed and the Republican right (UMP and UDI) regained the majority in this chamber, winning 116 new seats for a period of six years, while the forces of the left, including the ruling Socialist Party, only won 59 seats. The extreme-right National Front made it into this camera by getting, for the first time in its history, two seats. In total, the new Senate (348 seats) now has a conservative majority that occupies a total of 188, versus the 155 senators from the leftist groups. 

The current situation of the French government continues to deteriorate every day. Last Tuesday, the cabinet headed by Manuel Valls saved a confidence vote by just 25 votes in the National Assembly, with 31 Socialist MPs locked in abstention and the Government saved by the votes of the Radical Party. The Valls II cabinet is thus very damaged to set forth the reforms it has presented upon its return from last August's holidays, and therefore, it seems difficult that they will survive in the medium term. In addition, surveys are stubborn when showing a terrible political panorama for the future of France, with the Socialist Party sinking and its voters fleeing to the populist and extremist ideas presented by the National Front and Marine Le Pen. President Hollande is already rejected by...

04.07.14.- The 2014 FAES Campus ‘The Atlantic basin: Challenges and Opportunities course’ finished with the roundtable ‘Reestablishing the Atlantic link (I): security and defence’. Oleg Rybachuk, former Ukranian Deputy Prime Minister, Josep Piqué, former Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, former German Ministry of Defence, took part in it.

The 2014 FAES Campus ‘The Atlantic basin: Challenges and Opportunities course’ finished with the roundtable ‘Reestablishing the Atlantic link (I): security and defence’. Oleg Rybachuk, former Ukranian Deputy Prime Minister, Josep Piqué, former Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, former German Ministry of Defence, took part in it.

/01.07.14/.- Fátima Báñez, Minister of Employment and Social Security, took part in the second day of the 2014 FAES Campus and delivered the conference “Employment in Spain: Between the Labour Reform and Recovery”. José María Aznar, President of FAES Foundation; Javier Zarzalejos, Director of the Campus and Miguel Marín, Director of the FAES Foundation Economy and Public Policies Department, also participated in the session.

Zapatero firmó la Declaración final de la cumbre sobre los mercados financieros en la que, pese a la desinformación y confusión vertidas por el Gobierno, se afirma que las "reformas únicamente tendrán el éxito si están firmemente fundamentadas sobre un firme compromiso con los principios del libre mercado, incluyendo el imperio de la ley, el respeto por la propiedad privada, el comercio y las inversiones libres en los mercados competitivos y se apoyan sobre unos sistemas financieros eficientes y eficazmente regulados".

Between 1996 and 2004, Spain enjoyed the longest period of prosperity in its democratic history. Five million jobs, convergence of up to 98% with regard to the average EU income per capita, low inflation, a favourite destination for foreign investment, reduction of the public debt in terms of GDP, a budget surplus and creation of a Social Security Reserve Fund, are all results of a new economic model introduced by the Partido Popular. The key aspects of this model are described in this book by Lorenzo Bernaldo de Quirós and Ricardo Martínez Rico. The foundations of this new economic model consisted of the following measures: restraints on public expenditure, reorientation of expenditure based on efficiency criteria, reductions in income tax and corporate tax rates, the elimination of certain forms of taxation, privatisation, liberalisation of the goods and services markets, promotion of competition, independent regulatory bodies, labour market reforms and more open economic links with abroad.

The Spanish economy has a strong degree of momentum in terms of economic growth (above the European average) based on the significant expansion of domestic demand. Over the year and a half in which the present government has been in power, not a single significant economic measure has been introduced, although the effects of previous reforms continue to be felt.

Jaime García-Legaz: Las necesarias reformas para continuar hacia el pleno empleo Alberto Carnero:La Europa reunificada como parte de la comunidad atlántica EspañolJavier Zarzalejos: Reforma constitucional: ¿hay alguien ahí? Miguel Ángel Cortés: La excepción cultural: antidemocrática y perjudicial para la cultura en español