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What is Spain's role in the modern imperial system? (hexbear.net)

submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Obviously Spain has an imperial and colonial history only rivaled by the British and the French, but today it is a far less significant global player. Among EU countries, it's being much more critical of Israel than most of the rest - only much smaller countries like Ireland and Croatia are also critical.

So, what's Spain's deal? Where does it fit into the imperial system? Does it straddle a line between southern European nation internally exploited by the EU ala Greece and imperial power ala France?

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

yes

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Do you think this puts Spain (and the other "PIGS" countries) in position to have something like anti-colonial revolutions?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Not in any traditional sense, no. Getting out from under the thumb of the EU Central Bank - exiting the Euro - will become a thing eventually, although Greece already tried to take steps in that direction and utterly failed.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Too many people here are unfortunately living in complete ignorance of the role we have in Europe, still thinking that we benefit from it and that we'll be fucked if we leave.

We might be fucked if we leave, and Turkey might even become more aggressive because of it, but we most definitely will be fucked if we stay as the slave state that we are.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

It looks like remittances flowing home from workers living abroad make up a pretty substantial chunk of the Spanish economy at this point so losing free migration would hurt a lot in the short/medium run. And look at how Brexit has gone. Leaving would be a very politically risky project unless things get substantially worse somehow.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

It is very politically risky, but for Greece at least, the people are going to suffer more and more while under Europe's austerity measures. I think it's better to trade a probably bad situation for one that is certain and has been like that for a lot of years.

Also, it doesn't necessarily have to be Grexit. It can start by demanding from the Eurozone to end all austerity measures without any conditions. If they refuse, it's the same result, if they accept then we'll get to finally improve as a country and maybe even benefit the rest of Europe in the long term.