“We don't want Spain to be the next Greece....”

Zoreda said that unless the government gets a grip on the situation, Spain could suffer the same demise as Greece which last year, because of the continuing industrial unrest, experienced a severe decline in German holiday makers and he fears that Spain could suffer the same fate.

He said that culmination of the recent clashes between demonstrators and police over labour reforms and cuts to the educational and health sectors and the pending strikes in the airline industry “do the country no favours and the general interest of Spain which should be transmitting a sensation of seriousness, severity in order to improve the public deficit.” And, all this comes in the shadow of the threat of a general strike over Easter and Zoreda called on all parties involved to do everything possible to avert a general strike because it will not only cripple the tourist industry but the country as a whole. “We're playing with the tourist sector and Spanish society in general,” he underlined.
The widespread threat of strikes in Spain this holiday season has not gone unnoticed overseas. The British tourist industry is aware of the problems and the director of one of the UK's leading tour operators told the Bulletin yesterday that “just the mention of the word strike, even if it's just a threat sets alarm bells ringing with the tour firms and clients.”