When we face serious problems, such as economic crises, the people, at least in France and Spain, prefer to leave the government in calmer hands – perhaps less charismatic, but better prepared.
The media have experienced a recurring tide of reports about the four-day working week. The topic plays on the right strings – most people are employees and work five days a week.
While Western democracy is showing increasing signs of uncertainty, people look, with quiet admiration, to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. The power in those countries is in hand, stable and effective at affecting people’s behavior and actions.
The administrative burden has decreased by one working day or 8 hours compared to last year, shows the 2019 Bureaucracy Index published by the Institute of Economic and Social Studies in cooperation with the Lithuanian Free Market Institute.
Bureaucracy is still a burden for both entrepreneurs and ordinary citizens. One of the reasons why the political “fight” has not achieved remarkable success in fighting the red tape, is a missing connection between politics and the everyday life of entrepreneurs.
After the unsuccessful initiatives from within the ranks of the Belgian Flemish and the Scottish referendum, comes a strike pointed closely at the heart of the Union. Catalonia declared independence and Europe does not know what to do with this unexpected turn of events.
The 90% of the 2.2 million people that took part in Catalonia’s referendum voted for the independence of the region. Only 7.8% voted against it. But the most relevant data is that only the 42.2% of the 5.3 million people entitled to vote went to the polls.
Spain is facing nowadays crucial issues for the national integrity. Approximately 40,000 people have taken to the streets in Barcelona after Guardia Civil has arrested 14 people in the offices of the Catalan government, some of whom are senior officials, like Josep Maria Jové, secretary general of economic affairs.
Recent developments in India continued to steal headlines in the past couple of weeks. A surprising upshot was reported in both China and Vietnam while Spain and cannabis in the U.S. also generated significant interest.
Financial crisis with its accompanying factors, including the high rates of unemployment, tax increase and sever cuts in public services led to the increasing popularity of the radical left-wing parties in Greece and Spain, while not rendering the same result in Portugal.
