SOME EXTRACTS FROM THE WORK
The role of the powerful
• World powers determine that we will experience a war again.
• Economic powers determine prices that increase the costs of living and that the citizen pays.
• Street mobilization as a factor in a crisis situation.
• Political and health management in a pandemic.
• The case of the king emeritus, revealing clear dysfunctions in the role of politics, justice, the Treasury or the media in a democracy.
The business of war
Authoritarian governments like Putin’s have been increasing their arms budgets for years. The US arms industry also plays a determining role in world geopolitics. The following of Europe or the threat of the Chinese giant are prominent pieces on the war map.
«Only when the war broke out [en Ucrania]with the trading floors “rewarding” the arms companies, several countries rushed to announce the shipment of weapons to Ukraine. Germany, for example, reported that it was raising its defense budget to close to 100 billion euros.
«Eduardo Serra has held senior positions in the Ministry of Defense with UCD, PSOE and PP. Former Minister Serra even declared that “defense is to society what medicine is to the individual. It is a priority, above Health or Education. The world does not belong to Mariquita Pérez.”
«Former Minister Serra has publicly criticized that governments are self-conscious about hiding items that are from Defense by inserting them into the expenses of other ministries. Eduardo Serra is clear that there are electoral interests in this, because then, really, all the Executives end up having Defense policies “very similar, except with nuances.”»
«In total, the companies with which he had been linked [Pedro] Morenés received 115 million from the Government during his time as minister [con Rajoy]. The opaque procedure of non-publicized negotiation was the one chosen in 70% of the ministry’s awards in 2014, according to research by the Civio Foundation.
Energy: the money that moves everything
Interests with gas or oil have been behind different war conflicts. In countries like Spain, the consumer pays for it with the increase in the cost of living. The prices of the shopping basket or receipts lead to mobilizations and crisis situations for governments.
Although, already in pre-war times, energy prices began to escalate: “The rise in the price of electricity reached record levels, but without decisions that would make such an energy company tremble, which has proven to move like fish in water if the rulers dare to touch them. In electric ones, they not only provide a candle to the stove; It’s that they have the upper hand. When the PSOE and Unidas Podemos Executive was formed, they had launched messages against this increase in energy prices and in favor of bringing companies to heel. “It does not seem that they have altered the profits of a company like Iberdrola, in contrast to the bill that consumers pay.”
«The Sánchez Government was uncomfortable with some television programs for dealing with this escalation in the price of electricity, which skyrocketed the cost of living. To make matters worse, one of the best-known faces of the PSOE on television talk shows signed on as vice president of Iberdrola in the middle of this whole controversial situation of rising prices. Antonio Miguel Carmona. »
revolving doors
Jesús Cintora takes a tour of the large number of politicians who have taken the revolving door between politics and industries such as electricity, gas or banking. Leaders who position themselves, companies that buy a contact list, direct lines to political decision-making, ineffective regulations and the defenselessness of the citizen.
Going from privatizing your political position to being placed by that privatized company has been possible in Spain. Having strategic positions such as directing the CNI and ending up directly working for an electricity company investigated for corruption, has also happened.
«The Group of States against Corruption indicated in a report that the Conflict of Interest Office created in Spain has issued since 2006 98% of authorizations among applications for incorporation into the private sector. In other words, almost all of them. This has led GRECO to call for limitations on revolving doors for the prevention of corruption and the integrity of Governments. There are countries like France where incompatibilities are punished in the Penal Code.”
Client networks
«Client networks are the cholesterol of our society. It is not new, because several of our classic authors already reflected it in their work. Above them appears the role of the chief or chiefs. They are those who distribute. “They are seen and made to be seen as the defenders, the ones who grant favors, the masters, who have, so to speak, their servants.”
“In some cases it comes from regimes even prior to Franco’s regime, which were not completely dismantled, which with the dictatorship expanded enormously, which was not completely regenerated either and which, with the party system, has also been adding its layers.”
Source: https://algunoslibrosbuenos.com/no-quieren-que-lo-sepas
