The Tyler Group: Most unemployed part of Spain is pushing back against Madrid
When Spain's housing market collapsed in 2008, no region felt it more keenly than Andalusia. While today the unemployment rate in Spain remains the second highest in the European Union, hovering near a record 27.2 percent, the southern autonomous region of Andalusia is even worse off: unemployment rates in its provinces range from 36 percent in Malaga to 40 percent in Cadiz. As a result, the government of Andalusia – one of only two autonomous regions in Spain not governed by the Popular Party – is walking a fine line these days, caught between central government’s austerity measures which are affecting them more acutely than the rest of the country, and pressure from their constituents to break with Madrid and mitigate the effects of tax hikes and spending cuts that are squeezing the regional economy to the breaking point.
Published Monday, June 24, 2013 by Raymart Froelich
2 pages