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Palma.—Hosted by Iberostar, Abadía, who is best known for his analysis of the current economic crisis and has written various books about the problem, warned that Spain has a long way to go until it emerges from the recession.

One of his biggest concerns is unemployment and he said that there is no short term fix and that unemployment is going to continue being a major problem, especially amongst young people. “Young people must realise that there is a big world outside of Spain and that there is plenty of work and opportunities but first, they must study, train properly and learn English, without English, you'll die of hunger,” he warned.

Abadía also said that the government should be doing it all to embrace tourism. “We owe a big kiss to every one of the 58 million tourists who come here every year,” he said because without tourism, Spain would be in a far worse condition. “I know the government values tourism, it is not stupid, but it has no money for major promotions and one of the biggest reasons is because the banks are not releasing any money. “They are sitting on their deposits, which are getting larger thanks to financial aid from Brussels, and not releasing any into society and, as long as the banks fail to behave like banks, Spain will remain in recession,” Abadía explained.

He went on to claim that Spain is not being run by the Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, but by Brussels and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, to a lesser extent and that Spain has been in recession for the past 12 years and that until there is more austerity and people start “thinking with their heads” the recession will continue. “And, Spain will not get out of this recession until it has reduced its deficit to around 20 million euros, it currently stands at 80 million,” he added.

With regards to political corruption, Abadía was forced to admit that neither a new set of ethics nor new laws will stop politicians from being corrupt, although he said he hopes the current financial scandal involving the former treasurer of the ruling Partido Popular and a number of former and serving MPs, including the PM, will make politicians think twice in the future.