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THREAD: A primer on #Spain and #coronavirus, ahead of my live interview in an hour (11am New York time) with Ambassador Santiago Cabanas. Register to join here https://bit.ly/2UVVxC9 https://twitter.com/politico/status/1248322304196608001
US and Spain have very similar death tolls around 16,000 now, though Spain’s population is around 47 million and the US 325 million. Spain's a little ahead of US in the curve: daily new case numbers are finally down.
The Spanish government is a social democrat, center-left government, in a federal system with several highly autonomous regions/nations like #Catalonia. That made managing virus complicated https://www.politico.eu/article/devolved-spain-struggles-for-unity-against-coronavirus-pedro-sanchez/
But sometimes old foes work together: #Catalonia asked for and received Spanish army help. https://www.politico.eu/article/catalonia-requests-spanish-armys-help-to-fight-coronavirus/
You've probably seen the Spanish army by now, lol
Jokes aside, the domestic political truce in Spain is now over, my colleages @cristinagallardo https://www.politico.eu/article/spain-coronavirus-truce-is-over/
So it matters that top ministers like foreign minister @AranchaGlezLaya and deputy PM @NadiaCalvino Calvino are former #EU officials. That should help in a crisis, but northern countries have been reluctant to go all in with financial support to the harder hit south of Europe.
González said to her northern neighbors “we are in this EU boat together. We hit an unexpected iceberg. We all share the same risk right now. No time for discussions about alleged 1st & 2nd class tickets." Many Germans blame southerners for their problems https://www.politico.eu/article/half-germans-blame-italy-spain-pandemic-poor-governance-poll-coronavirus/
My colleagues @herszenhorn @swheaton have catalogued the overall complacency that has marked Europe’s attempts to contain the #coronavirus: https://www.politico.eu/article/coronavirus-europe-failed-the-test/
As for when will Spain re-open? Parliament extended a state of emergency until April 25 but opposes semi-permanent expansion of executive power and suspension of rule of the type seen in #Hungary. https://www.politico.eu/article/viktor-orban-hungary-13-countries-deeply-concerned-over-rule-of-law/
Elderly in Spain have been particularly vulnerable: see these AP photos and @nyt story https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2020/04/10/world/europe/ap-eu-virus-outbreak-spains-most-vulnerable.html
Hindsight's a beautiful thing: Spain, like many countries, didn’t fully heed the warning signs from neighbors. Some big events were cancelled in Feb (MWC) others went ahead in March (IWD) https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/world/europe/spain-coronavirus.html
