La mayor revista semanal de Europa denuncia el despilfarro de Ana Botella

[ferarca]

El semanario "Der Spiegel" dedicó un amplio artículo a la situación del Ayuntamiento de Madrid. La revista alemana, asombrada, relata una historia que ilustra perfectamente lo escandaloso de nuestra situación. Se refería a la Alcaldesa de Madrid, cuyo único "mérito" es ser la señora de Aznar.
El semanario no daba crédito, "el ayuntamiento es un palacio cuya remodelación ha costado 500 millones de euros!!!", "su despacho es mayor que el del Presidente de los Estados Unidos", tiene "un mayordomo cuya única función es servirla el café", y 260 asesores personales y altos cargos que cobran de media 60.000 euros.
El Ayuntamiento posee, además, 267 coches oficiales de uso personal, más que todas la capitales de la eurozona juntas. Es una administración  sin medida, la ostentación suntuaria más indecente en medio de una penuria extrema, donde Cáritas ha tenido que atender a mas de un millón de personas y un 26% de los niños vive por debajo del umbral de la pobreza. Y el pais en situación de rescate.

El enlace a la noticia completa:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/madrid-mayor-botella-hailed-for-efforts-to-reduce-debt-a-825762.html

[Noble Bruto]

Es claramente una vergüenza. Pero me vas a perdonar si parto una lanza por la alcaldesa, sencillamente no creo que haya tenido tiempo de construirse ella el palacio, el despacho, crear la estructura de empleados y asesores... ni ordenar personalmente la compra de 260 coches.

Creo que a nadie se le escapa que esto es una macroestructura creada por toda la clase política de este país que ha pasado por ahí... y Ahora esta Ana Botella, que puede (no lo sé) estar poniendo su contribución a ello.

El problema es que este artículo parece estar orquestado como ataque personal a ella, basándose en algo que, en su mayoría y a todas luces, no es obra personal suya, y eso convierte el artículo en vomitivo, es algo así como los vídeos estos sectarios que salieron en taiwan... que no voy a volver a comentar. Basura. Puede que sea verdad aquello en que se basa pero ligarlo al nombre de Ana Botella está claro que está hecho con la mala ostia de siempre de exacerbar la mente de la mayoría de idiotas de que está compuesto el electorado.

[Roger_Federer]

Eso es cierto, la idea de cambiar al ayuntamiento de sede no fue de Ana Botella sino del anterior alcalde...Gallardón, más conocido como "El faraón"

[ferarca]

Ya, pero "El Faraón" fué quien la eligió como sucesora y el artífice de la remodelación del palacio. Es cierto que el diario alemán debería haberlo dicho, pero no lo es menos que la señora alcladesa no está haciendo nada para cambiar algunos de los aspectos que se mencionan en el artículo.

[brazolatigo]

Pues ya verás cuando los del Spiegel se enteren de como ha dejado Tomás Gómez el ayuntamiento de Parla!

[Noble Bruto]

Sigue siendo un articulo tendencioso, falso en su línea argumental, malintencionado y que se descalifica a sí mismo por tramposo. Y lo sabes, ferarca.

[brazolatigo]

Ahora en serio, que esta señora haya heredado el cargo de alcaldesa de Madrid es un mal chiste.

Y que tenga un mayordomo, que haya colocado a sus amiguitas de promoción como asesoras, que se hayan gastado 500 millones en remodelar Correos, que dispongan de choferes, coches oficiales, de un regimiento de guardaespaldas y de tantas otras prebendas es de juzgado de guardia

Por eso, como esto no es la excepción sino la norma, es tan urgente la reforma del modelo de estado y la desratización de todas las administraciones públicas.

[brazolatigo]

Sigue siendo un articulo tendencioso, falso en su línea argumental, malintencionado y que se descalifica a sí mismo por tramposo. Y lo sabes, ferarca.

100% de acuerdo con Noble.

El artículo parece sacado de un tabloid británico, aparte del tufo sensacionalista y por cierto, de no ser actual (es del mes de Mayo), es inexacto (se refiere, entre otros disparates, al gobierno de Rajoy como a un gobierno conservador federal!) y es muy tendencioso.

Y Ferarca, no sé como andarás de inglés, pero tampoco es que le meta tanta caña a la Botella.

[ferarca]

Pues tengo el nivel suficiente de inglés para entresacar lo que he entresacado, pero si lo prefieres, lo pongo en el idioma original:

"Last Thursday wasn't one of those days. Instead of jubilant soccer fans, there were tens of thousands of protestors waving red flags in front of the fountain just below the balcony of Botella's office. They were protesting against the fact that over 5 million of their fellow citizens are unemployed and against the austerity measures imposed by the conservative federal government, which are plunging many families into poverty"

That morning, inside city hall, Botella and the city council had decided to free up about €1 million ($1.3 million) in funds so that rents could be reduced for the city's poorest residents living in subsidized housing.

Indeed, these are hard times on Cibeles Square. Madrid's mayor still has to pay over €1 billion for 16,712 outstanding bills from 2011 as well as try to get the finances of Spain's most heavily indebted city under control. And she needs to do so as quickly as possible.

Botella inherited not only the office with the best view, a room larger than the Oval Office in Washington, in a 1917 palace that was converted into the city hall at a cost of €500 million, but also the services of a butler whose sole duty is to serve coffee to her and her guests. But she has also inherited close to €6.4 billion in debts.

Unlike the prime minister, Botella cannot blame a political rival on the left for the city's past wasteful habits. Instead, it was her predecessor, a conservative, who had increased Madrid's debt by a factor of five. He had a ring of expressways built around the city and pursued Madrid's candidacy as a host city for the Olympics twice. In the process, he spent many millions on stadiums that are now underused. The new mayor wants to continue the city's bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics, arguing that most of the infrastructure has already been built, -- and that it's also important for a society to have its dreams. But, as far as everything else is concerned, she champions a tough new austerity course.

A New Political Style

Botella, a lawyer and devout Catholic, isn't the worst choice to manage the city in its current plight. "I married at 23 and supported my family during the first few years," Botella say proudly. She worked as a civil servant in the administration, most recently in the Finance Ministry. She only stopped working when her husband, whom she brought into the conservative People's Alliance party in the late 1970s, became prime minister in 1996 and the family of five moved into the Moncloa Palace, the prime minister's official residence. She keeps a photo from the night of the election on the bookshelf next to her desk.

As the wife of the prime minister, she was derided for wearing leather jackets from a cheap retail store on official trips. She also raised eyebrows once when she appeared in jeans and a plain jacket instead of an evening gown at a reception for the royal couple.

Today, she also embodies a new style. Her predecessor in Madrid's city hall was fond of luxury and fancied himself an excellent, well-read speaker. Botella, on the other hand, wears off-the-rack dresses and hardly any real jewelry. What's more, she stiffly adheres to her prepared speeches -- partly out of a fear of repeating the kinds of gaffes she has previously made in remarks about homosexuals or people on the left.

City Belt-Tightening

But the thing most demanded of politicians these days is strict bookkeeping. Four years ago, when the real estate bubble burst, one of the main sources of revenues for Spain's municipal administrations dried up. Cities could no longer collect nearly as many fees for issuing building permits, and they also lacked the trade tax revenues from construction contractors.

What's more, many companies in the construction sector were forced to declare bankruptcy. While companies are required to pay value-added tax upfront to the tax authorities, the customers -- and especially those in the public sector -- were unable to make their payments to the companies during the crisis.

Now the Rajoy government has promised assistance. Heavily indebted cities can now borrow money for 10 years, at an interest rate of only 5 percent, from a €35 billion fund managed by the National Credit Institute. The city of Madrid will avail itself of the offer beginning in May so that it can finally pay close to 1,700 suppliers and craftsmen. Nevertheless, the mayor still realizes she has to trim her future spending and seek out additional sources of revenue.

To do so, Botella plans to start selling city assets, including buildings and commercial interests, to local businesses, such as the water utility. She has also made €130 million in cuts, reduced the size of the city's motor pool, dismissed advisers, put the redesign of Madrid's art district on hold and slashed subsidies for programs helping drug addicts and first-time employees.

Cutting State Spending

In addition to municipalities, Rajoy must also restructure the country's 17 "autonomous communities," which are regions comparable with Germany's federal states. Primarily responsibility for the fact that government spending has spun out of control lies with these regions. The new government and the overwhelmingly conservative governors of these regions have agreed to impose debt ceilings. But since it will probably be impossible to stay below these levels without additional cuts in spending on education, health care and social benefits, many state-owned companies will be privatized or dissolved.

On the weekend before last, voters gave Prime Minister Rajoy his first warning. The leftists won an election in the southern region of Andalusia, where unemployment stands at 31 percent, or 8 percent above the national average. They had promised to guarantee the blessings of the welfare state instead of focusing exclusively on austerity measures.

Rajoy's tactic of keeping his budget plan a secret in the run-up to the regional elections failed. With his bid to avoid upsetting voters, he had risked triggering a lot of resentment at the European Commission in Brussels. His Italian counterpart, Mario Monti, even voiced his "concern" over Spain's reliability, and the risk premium for Spanish government bonds went up.

Shortly after coming into office, Rajoy used his absolute majority in parliament to implement a tightening of the labor-market reforms launched by his predecessor, Zapatero. It now enables troubled companies to cut wages and lay off employees without having to pay substantial severance packages. The conservatives believe that the new law will lead to the signing of more employment contracts in the long term. Despite the general strike, Rajoy intends to stand his ground.

The government wants the savings banks, whose books are burdened by mortgages at risk of default as well as by devalued real estate, to quickly coalesce into larger institutions. For the coming months, Rajoy has also announced additional and "equally important" reforms in government services for the public administration and in the energy sector. The budget approved by his cabinet will force all ministries to cut spending by at least 17 percent and freeze all civil-servant salaries.

Time for Drastic Changes

Still, this is all far from enough. The Euro Group, made up of the finance ministers of the 17 euro-zone member states, is demanding that Spain reduce its deficit to 5.3 percent of GDP by the end of the year, and it plans to monitor the country's progress. This has prompted Rajoy to go against his campaign promises by raising some taxes after all. The increase in income tax rates, limited to two years for now, has been in effect since January, and the tax burden for large companies will also be increased.

Union leaders and opposition parties on the left have been arguing that the brutal austerity course is only expanding the army of the unemployed, will curtail consumption and will deepen the recession. Nevertheless, Rajoy remains confident. "The worst mistake is to do nothing," he said

As Rajoy makes these changes, no elections will stand in his way for at least 12 months. Mayor Botella has even more time. Madrid residents will not be voting for a new mayor until 2015. Then the woman who inherited her office might finally be elected.