"Are Spaniards Still Europeanists?"

Laia Mestres,
Researcher, CIDOB

13 June 2012 / Opinión CIDOB, n.º 152 / E-ISSN 2014-0843

Is the economic crisis having an effect upon one of the most immutable principles of democratic Spain, the traditional Europeanism of the Spanish that saw belonging to the European Union as the key factor in the modernization and international prestige of Spain?

The political elites are reasserting their Europeanism. In an unprecedented gesture, in early February Minister José Manuel García-Margallo reached an agreement with all the previous Ministers of Foreign Affairs of democratic Spain to publish a joint article in El Mundo affirming that "it is time to contribute with ideas and political support, from a firm Europeanist conviction, to any initiatives aimed at improving the functioning of the European Union." These same words could have been part of the discourse of a Spanish leader on the solemn act of accession to the European Communities in 1986. The Spanish European policy, now as before, is still considered as a matter of State policy. The idea of "More Europe" has formed and continues to form a substantive part of the consensus among the main political forces of the country. It is perhaps the last redoubt of the long-forgotten consensus in foreign policy.