Rajoy congratulates himself on taking Spain out of the crisis without a bailout

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy delivered the final State of the Nation address of his current term of office on Tuesday, during which he congratulated himself on turning the nation around from the situation of near-bankruptcy he encountered when he came to power in December 2011 without the need for a European bailout.

The Popular Party leader said he would use the final part of his mandate before general elections this fall to speed up growth, announcing new measures to “alleviate the situation of the middle classes,” such as tax breaks to encourage more flat-rate permanent contracts, extending welfare checks for families, cutting judicial fees, and introducing a “second chance” law to encourage households to pay off their debts.

Rajoy announced tax breaks to encourage permanent contracts, and a “second chance” law to help households pay off debts

So optimistic was the prime minister’s address that he said the next challenge would be to create three million new jobs. “That must be our objective, because it is attainable if we don’t fall foul of any blunders,” Rajoy said. “If we are able to maintain the pace of growth, and we fulfill forecasts that we can grow well above two percent a year, we might well be able to say we have a million net jobs within reach between last year and this year. If we don’t let things go astray, we can aspire to create over half a million jobs every year. Three million jobs to protect ourselves from eventualities and to continue growing in terms of standard of living and security.”

On several occasions in his address to Congress, Rajoy made reference to how he had managed to resist pressure to request a bailout for Spain. “The easiest thing would have been to bow to the pressure, but also the most unfair, and we refused to get out of the crisis at the cost of Social Security or pensions coffers.”

Rajoy predicted that the Spanish economy would grow 2.4 percent in 2015, 0.4 points higher than previous forecasts, pointing to figures such as an increase in consumer spending, improved exports, and favorable prices, which would, he claimed, create more than 500,000 jobs this year.

“The state of the nation is that of a nation that has woken up from a nightmare, that has bailed itself out, recovered prestige, is attractive to investors, has reorganized how it works and is growing in terms of consumption and investment,” he told Congress.