MADRIDâCelestino Corbacho probably has Europe's toughest policy job outside of Greece.
The labor minister for a country with almost every fifth worker out of a job and a ballooning budget deficit, Mr. Corbacho is locked in a struggle with employers and unions to prevent Spain from slipping into a fiscal spiral that could land it with a crisis on the scale of Greece's.
Two years ago Mr. Corbacho was a political boss for Spain's ruling Socialist party in Catalonia, where he had won reelection several times mayor of Hospitalet de Llobregat, the region's second-largest city. That made him a natural pick for Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero; traditionally, Spain's socialist prime ministers are expected to fill a number of prominent positions from Catalonia, which delivers a lot of the Socialists' votes.
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Following the collapse of a decade-long construction boom, Spain's unemployment rate is 19%âand 35% for 20 to 24 year olds. The â¬30 billion ($40 billion) earmarked for unemployment benefits dwarfs nearly all other expenses in the government's 2010 budget.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...70010368274.html?mod=WSJ_World_LEFTSecondNews
The labor minister for a country with almost every fifth worker out of a job and a ballooning budget deficit, Mr. Corbacho is locked in a struggle with employers and unions to prevent Spain from slipping into a fiscal spiral that could land it with a crisis on the scale of Greece's.
Two years ago Mr. Corbacho was a political boss for Spain's ruling Socialist party in Catalonia, where he had won reelection several times mayor of Hospitalet de Llobregat, the region's second-largest city. That made him a natural pick for Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero; traditionally, Spain's socialist prime ministers are expected to fill a number of prominent positions from Catalonia, which delivers a lot of the Socialists' votes.
...
Following the collapse of a decade-long construction boom, Spain's unemployment rate is 19%âand 35% for 20 to 24 year olds. The â¬30 billion ($40 billion) earmarked for unemployment benefits dwarfs nearly all other expenses in the government's 2010 budget.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...70010368274.html?mod=WSJ_World_LEFTSecondNews
