An Optimism Movement in Spain

Even so, some resilient Spaniards have taken up the challenge of getting their countrymen thinking that things are not as bad as they seem.

“All that is now happening in our politics is clearly hurting us,” said Elena Herrero-Beaumont, who last November started an optimistically-themed blog called Bright Spain. “But I’m convinced Spain will come out stronger from this crisis.”

Spain’s troubles are real, of course, and have battered the national psyche of a country that has been through some dizzying transitions in the last 35 years, from dictatorship to democracy and from complete independence to the shared sovereignty and shared currency of European Union membership. The confluence of problems within Spain and in the broader union have not just hurt business but have also left many people feeling unmoored. For some, the answer has been a search for the silver linings that might restore some modicum of national pride and confidence.

Students at the Camilo José Cela University in Madrid, for example, have begun publishing a periodic newsletter called Buenas Noticias, or Good News, with the backing of corporate sponsors including Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. Maripé Menéndez, the university’s director of communications, said it was meant to cheer up both its readers and its journalists. “We need to generate some optimism among our students, and make them understand that, however difficult the situation might look, Spain will eventually come out of this crisis,” Ms. Menéndez said.

In the first issue in December, the emphasis was decidedly upbeat. Instead of focusing on the 26 percent unemployment rate, Buenas Noticias published articles about companies that are recruiting workers in Spain, including Renault, McDonald’s and Telefónica, which is offering 200 internships. (The 5,600 workers Telefónica plans to lay off over the next three years went unmentioned.)

The most committed optimists say Spain’s main problem is one of communication.

“The Spanish authorities basically spent four years denying problems such as those of the banks, thinking that such denial would protect Spain’s image,” said Ignacio de la Torre, a partner at Arcano, a Spanish wealth advisory and asset management firm. “But the result turned out be exactly the opposite.”

Arcano recently published a bullish economic study written by Mr. de la Torre called “The Case for Spain,” intended to help debunk some “common myths about Spain,” including the idea that Spaniards are inefficient. It highlights statistics showing Spain’s productivity outpacing that of Europe’s largest nations in recent years.

The government’s own efforts center on “brand Spain.” It appointed a high commissioner last June to promote it: Carlos Espinosa de los Monteros, a former director of the clothing company Inditex, one of Spain’s biggest corporate success stories.

“The main challenge is to mobilize all the resources we have, within and outside Spain, to tell the positive side of the story without bragging,” he said.

Still, he conceded, economic realities intrude. “I have almost no budget,” he said, “because this job was created amid spending cuts in the administration.”

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/14/world/europe/an-optimism-movement-in-spain.html?partner=rss&emc=rss