Spain is carrying 225 billion euros of debt that will come due this year. A fund set up to save small savings banks (cajas) caught up in the financial crisis by arranging mergers has just taken charge of Cajasur, and the IMF has called, among other things, for the transformation and de-politicisation of cajas.
Spain has a minority of government. It has had minority governments for thirteen of the last twenty years, and will for the next two. The leader of the opposition, Mariano Rajoy (b. 1955, first elected 1981), does not generally negotiate with the government: he confronts, and his allies in that part of civil society colonised by his party take to the streets and make all the noise they can. Spain cannot afford two more years of confrontation and noise. Mr Rajoy should accept a new role as Mr Zapatero's formal or informal coalition partner, strike deals, defend them, and stick to them. In the absence of a majority government and of any other parliamentary math allowing for stability, ambitious reform depends on it.
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