For episode 4 of ‘Infrequent Harmonies’ Felipe González has the presence of economist, Member of the European Parliament of Ciudadanos and Vice President of the European Liberal Party Luis Garicano. With him, he discusses, among other issues, the situation left by the coronavirus pandemic in Europe, the progress of vaccination in Spain, and the current and future economic recovery.

In addition, González and Garicano address other topics such as the future labor situation of young people, the problem of reversibility in reforms, or the new policy implemented by American President Joe Biden.

First of all, Felipe González wanted to thank the economist for his acceptance of a “scriptless” talk in which the dialogue focuses “on the things that worry or relieve me,” he warns. A conversation in which he seeks to center the dialogue on the ‘European dimension of the pandemic’ taking advantage of the presence of the orange MEP.

Moving forward with the topics to be discussed, the former Prime Minister has initiated the dialogue by urging caution from society despite the significant progress of vaccination in Spain: “There will be a clear improvement, but we must not let our guard down,” he says.

“As long as the issue is not resolved in pandemic terms, we have a threat; some aftershocks may surprise us.”

On another note, González referred to the difficult economic situation which he believes will have a “strong resurgence,” an optimistic view that Garicano also shares: “The purchase of vaccines by the European Union was the acid test; if it had gone badly, it would have been catastrophic,” he asserts. Along these lines, they both agreed on the cruising speed that vaccination in Europe has acquired, highlighting Spain’s role in recent weeks, “which is already doing it faster than the United Kingdom and the United States,” Garicano clarifies.

On the other hand, the MEP lamented that the opportunity has not been seized, as in other crises, to bring about significant changes, an opinion that González has joined by clarifying that “if the recovery does not introduce the necessary reforms to enhance our capacity to compete, the underlying problems will continue.”

USA as an example

Taking advantage of Luis Garicano's presence, Felipe González emphasized the importance of the European Union, which he says is “an extraordinary invention, but not a mechanism for resolving internal conflicts,” referring to the Catalan conflict: “Of course, there are internal conflicts, but we must change our approach to move orderly towards Europe.”

In this regard, the MEP pointed to the United States as an example of a territory overcoming a significant division thanks to a national program, established by Biden, that transcends identities: “Trump focused on making policies for groups and not for the whole of the United States,” he indicates, highlighting one of the main problems that current politics does not address: the resolution of the real problems of society.

Reversibility and reforms Both also share the view that Spain should take advantage of the current moment of crisis to set aside identity differences and promote new reforms, something that Garicano emphasizes, if it is already being done in the European Parliament: “Both socialists, liberals, and popular parties, the same ones that in Spain are having conflicts daily for unknown reasons, work together there,” he states.

In this regard, the former president highlighted the problem of labor reforms, which have always consisted of “repealing the previous reform” instead of thinking about labor relations of the 21st century: “It would be much more positive for everyone, starting with those who are unemployed,” he explains.

For his part, the Ciudadanos representative highlighted several key aspects to improve this situation: collective bargaining, hiring, and training: “In training, there should be consensus to move to a different system that we see how it works in Germany.”

The Catalan nationalism

One of the most politically controversial situations in recent years is the nationalist issue in Catalonia, which for Garicano is Spain's big problem and one that may be “something people are not aware of as to how much it weakens us as a country in Europe.” Felipe González adds that “this results in a clear and absolute unilateral break.”

And indeed, the former president has pointed out the territorial issue as one of the major historical problems of the country that still persist and of which he sees only one way out: “The only solution I see is federalization and the demand for an institutional loyalty that allows us to say that disloyalty has consequences and that this is a decentralization of power,” he concludes.