0:00:07 > 0:00:09Spain is a country in crisis.
0:00:10 > 0:00:14With millions unemployed and millions more now facing poverty,
0:00:14 > 0:00:17Spaniards have taken to the streets in protest.
0:00:26 > 0:00:30Spain's economic collapse means Europe is now spending billions
0:00:30 > 0:00:32just to keep it afloat.
0:00:34 > 0:00:37Either you save us or the Euro sinks.
0:00:37 > 0:00:40That's a very powerful blackmail, isn't it?
0:00:41 > 0:00:44With its massive economy, the Spanish crisis is big enough
0:00:44 > 0:00:48to bring down the whole of the Eurozone.
0:00:48 > 0:00:50If Spain was forced out of the Euro then who else is safe?
0:00:50 > 0:00:54You know, why not France, why not Italy?
0:00:54 > 0:00:58'So how did Spain, one of the largest economies in the world,
0:00:58 > 0:01:01'reach a point where pharmacies are running out of medicine?'
0:01:01 > 0:01:02There's hardly anything here.
0:01:02 > 0:01:04Normally, it's todo lleno.
0:01:04 > 0:01:05Full.
0:01:05 > 0:01:08'And thousands of families can't afford to eat.'
0:01:13 > 0:01:17This is the story of the rise and fall of Spain,
0:01:17 > 0:01:19from dictatorship to democracy,
0:01:22 > 0:01:27from construction boom to economic bust.
0:01:41 > 0:01:46Benidorm, one of Spain's most famous holiday resorts.
0:01:46 > 0:01:49We love it. That's why we come back. We enjoyed it so much last time.
0:01:49 > 0:01:52The entertainment is brilliant. We went out last night.
0:01:52 > 0:01:53It's free to get in.
0:01:53 > 0:01:54Like Blackpool but warmer.
0:01:54 > 0:01:56Yeah, it's a warmer version of Blackpool,
0:01:56 > 0:01:58but they're very friendly people, though.
0:01:58 > 0:02:00They make you feel very welcome.
0:02:02 > 0:02:06Guaranteed sunshine, all-day fry-ups and Sky Sports mean that the
0:02:06 > 0:02:09British love affair with Spain is still going strong.
0:02:11 > 0:02:14Last year, 11 million of us holidayed in Spain,
0:02:14 > 0:02:17making it by far and away the top tourist destination.
0:02:22 > 0:02:26But just half an hour away, on the streets of Alicante,
0:02:26 > 0:02:28there's not much of a holiday atmosphere.
0:02:33 > 0:02:3670,000 people are marching against recent cuts.
0:02:37 > 0:02:40Among them is 42-year-old mum, Loli Ballester.
0:02:55 > 0:02:57Faced with economic ruin,
0:02:57 > 0:03:00the Spanish government has enforced austerity measures that dwarf
0:03:00 > 0:03:04anything seen in Britain or most other European countries.
0:03:05 > 0:03:08Public service workers have had their pay cut,
0:03:08 > 0:03:11unemployment benefit has been slashed and taxes raised.
0:03:25 > 0:03:29It has led to mass unemployment, growing poverty and anger.
0:03:46 > 0:03:48An hour's drive down the coast
0:03:48 > 0:03:51is Loli's home town of San Miguel de Salinas...
0:03:55 > 0:03:58..population, 8,000.
0:03:58 > 0:04:00BELL RINGS
0:04:02 > 0:04:06The old centre is traditionally Spanish, but half the population
0:04:06 > 0:04:10is now made up of international ex-pats, mainly Brits.
0:04:12 > 0:04:16The economy here is based on tourism and agriculture.
0:04:20 > 0:04:23San Miguel is a typical small Spanish town.
0:04:23 > 0:04:24It's got the feel of a place
0:04:24 > 0:04:27that's done quite well for itself over the years,
0:04:27 > 0:04:30and it's not the kind of place you'd expect to see poverty.
0:04:30 > 0:04:32But now, you can.
0:04:32 > 0:04:35People here are going through real hardship.
0:04:49 > 0:04:53'Of course, not everyone in San Miguel is begging on the streets,
0:04:53 > 0:04:55'but the crisis is now hitting
0:04:55 > 0:04:58'ordinary middle-class Spanish families.'
0:05:05 > 0:05:10Life for Loli and her family changed when she lost her job in a DIY store
0:05:10 > 0:05:13at the start of the economic crisis five years ago.
0:05:25 > 0:05:27To make matters worse, her husband, Emilio,
0:05:27 > 0:05:32who works in the building industry, hasn't been paid for months.
0:05:32 > 0:05:35With jobs few and far between, he has no alternative
0:05:35 > 0:05:37but to carry on working for nothing.
0:05:55 > 0:05:57In these tough times,
0:05:57 > 0:05:59they manage to keep going with help from their family.
0:05:59 > 0:06:01Most of the food they're eating
0:06:01 > 0:06:03is grown on the grandparents' allotment.
0:06:12 > 0:06:14Loli's daughter is still at school.
0:06:14 > 0:06:17Her son wants to go to agricultural college,
0:06:17 > 0:06:19but the recent cuts mean he might not go.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45Everywhere in San Miguel there is anger and pessimism.
0:06:48 > 0:06:50What do you think about the way the country's going?
0:07:04 > 0:07:08So what is it that's brought this great country to its knees?
0:07:10 > 0:07:13The answers lie in its turbulent recent past.
0:07:13 > 0:07:17Little more than 40 years ago, Spain was a very different country,
0:07:17 > 0:07:21backward, rural and ruled by a dictator.
0:07:25 > 0:07:26From the late 1930s,
0:07:26 > 0:07:31General Francisco Franco ruled Spain with an iron grip.
0:07:31 > 0:07:34Franco had seized power from Spain's elected government
0:07:34 > 0:07:39during a vicious civil war with atrocities on both sides.
0:07:39 > 0:07:44Somewhere between 200,000 and 300,000 men were killed on the battlefields,
0:07:44 > 0:07:49but well over another 200,000 were murdered unnecessarily
0:07:49 > 0:07:50behind the lines.
0:07:52 > 0:07:56Franco's brutal rule was marked by an economic policy designed
0:07:56 > 0:07:57to isolate Spain.
0:07:59 > 0:08:03Franco was, economically, a nincompoop,
0:08:03 > 0:08:06but believed himself to be an economist of genius.
0:08:06 > 0:08:10Immediately at the end of the Civil War, he rejected various
0:08:10 > 0:08:13possibilities of credit from Britain and the United States
0:08:13 > 0:08:17and adopted a policy of autarky so it was like a siege economy.
0:08:20 > 0:08:25The conditions in Spain in the 1940s were comparable
0:08:25 > 0:08:30to many African countries for which appeals for relief are made today.
0:08:30 > 0:08:34They were, you know, people were starving in the streets,
0:08:34 > 0:08:38living out of dustbins, living on potato peel.
0:08:38 > 0:08:40I mean, it really was extraordinary.
0:08:42 > 0:08:47Franco's policy condemned Spain to economic ruin
0:08:47 > 0:08:51until he was impelled to accept economic assistance.
0:08:53 > 0:08:56In the late 50s, a group of leading economists
0:08:56 > 0:09:00came up with a strategy to save the country from collapse.
0:09:00 > 0:09:03One of them was Jose Luis Sampedro.
0:09:03 > 0:09:05Now 95 years old,
0:09:05 > 0:09:08he is still one of the most respected economists in Spain.
0:09:10 > 0:09:13- TRANSLATION:- At that time, Spanish society was running
0:09:13 > 0:09:17on personal favours alongside the black market.
0:09:17 > 0:09:21Of course, there's a moment when this system cannot continue.
0:09:21 > 0:09:25It became clear we needed international support
0:09:25 > 0:09:28because the country was so far into the red.
0:09:30 > 0:09:33Sampedro and his fellow economists saw that Spain could benefit
0:09:33 > 0:09:35from the country's desperate poverty.
0:09:37 > 0:09:40It was precisely that poverty which offered
0:09:40 > 0:09:42an opportunity for foreign investors.
0:09:43 > 0:09:47European manufacturers began to relocate their factories to Spain
0:09:47 > 0:09:50to take advantage of the low wages,
0:09:50 > 0:09:53and Spain had one other enormous asset.
0:09:57 > 0:09:58The sun.
0:09:58 > 0:10:03NEWSREADER: This is the Costa del Sol, the sunshine coast of Andalucia,
0:10:03 > 0:10:06newly invaded by sun-hungry hoards from northern Europe.
0:10:09 > 0:10:11In the 1950s, the tourism industry was born.
0:10:18 > 0:10:21Tourism had a huge economic impact.
0:10:22 > 0:10:26It was a way of bringing money into the economy other than exports,
0:10:26 > 0:10:30and it allowed the country to profit from its cheap accommodation.
0:10:36 > 0:10:39- AIR STEWARDESS:- Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Alicante,
0:10:39 > 0:10:40where the local time is 10:20.
0:10:46 > 0:10:49By the 1970s, the Spanish coast was the destination for tourists,
0:10:49 > 0:10:51particularly from the UK.
0:11:01 > 0:11:05Glaswegian David Craig set up business here in 1973,
0:11:05 > 0:11:08tapping into the swelling numbers of British tourists
0:11:08 > 0:11:10travelling abroad for the first time.
0:11:11 > 0:11:15I decided that because of the predominance of the English
0:11:15 > 0:11:19holidaymakers here, we would make something for them,
0:11:19 > 0:11:23and in actual fact, I started off with apple pies,
0:11:23 > 0:11:24and then with Cornish pasties.
0:11:29 > 0:11:33Today, he has a multi-million Euro business importing British food
0:11:33 > 0:11:38to restaurants, cafes and bars in Benidorm and the Costa Blanca.
0:11:38 > 0:11:40Here you are, mate.
0:11:40 > 0:11:41Thank you kindly.
0:11:41 > 0:11:45But when he started, under Franco, Spain was still a primitive country.
0:11:46 > 0:11:50No one had ovens in their house. They cooked on a gas ring.
0:11:50 > 0:11:54Anything they wanted to put into an oven they made at home and they took
0:11:54 > 0:11:57along to the baker's, and after the bread was baked,
0:11:57 > 0:12:01they were allowed to put their different dishes
0:12:01 > 0:12:03into the oven to be finished off and baked.
0:12:05 > 0:12:08Tourism unleashed a wave of construction that continued
0:12:08 > 0:12:11unabated for decades, and helped Spain
0:12:11 > 0:12:14to become the second fastest-growing economy in the world.
0:12:20 > 0:12:23Today, the boom years suddenly feel very distant.
0:12:24 > 0:12:27Here in San Miguel, things have got so bad that the neighbours'
0:12:27 > 0:12:31association has opened a food bank to support families with no money.
0:12:35 > 0:12:39And some of the donation are from Brits who came as tourists
0:12:39 > 0:12:40but ended up settling down here.
0:12:40 > 0:12:46We bought 35 kilos of flour, 35 kilos of sugar.
0:12:46 > 0:12:49In the carrier bags we've 37 dozen eggs.
0:12:50 > 0:12:54This is stuff that's collected from the bars.
0:12:54 > 0:12:56They put all kind of things in,
0:12:56 > 0:12:58but some of the things the Spanish are not used to,
0:12:58 > 0:13:00like Bird's Custard Powder and beans in tomato sauce.
0:13:06 > 0:13:09Loli was one of the founders of the food bank three years ago
0:13:09 > 0:13:11when the crisis began to bite.
0:13:11 > 0:13:13Treinta y tres.
0:13:13 > 0:13:16Over recent months, she's seen demand steadily increase.
0:13:34 > 0:13:37In Spain, you can only claim unemployment benefits for two years.
0:13:37 > 0:13:41This has left an estimated one and a half million people with no income.
0:13:42 > 0:13:46Beatrice Villarreal and her mother, Manuela Sanchez,
0:13:46 > 0:13:49have never had to rely on charity before.
0:14:34 > 0:14:36In 1975, Franco died,
0:14:38 > 0:14:40and King Juan Carlos ushered in a new government
0:14:40 > 0:14:43to begin the difficult transition to democracy.
0:14:44 > 0:14:47Some of the decisions taken then were to have a big impact
0:14:47 > 0:14:51on Spain's current crisis - above all, on the status of the regions.
0:14:53 > 0:14:55After the first democratic elections,
0:14:55 > 0:14:59a relatively moderate right-wing government
0:14:59 > 0:15:03under a man called Adolfo Suarez came into power, and he had to deal with
0:15:03 > 0:15:08the problem of the long, pent-up desire for autonomy
0:15:08 > 0:15:10from both the Basque Country and Catalonia.
0:15:13 > 0:15:14Catalonia and the Basque Country
0:15:14 > 0:15:17have their own languages and culture.
0:15:17 > 0:15:21Under Franco, all expressions of regional identity,
0:15:21 > 0:15:24let alone autonomy, had been ruthlessly suppressed.
0:15:24 > 0:15:27The new Prime Minister had to find a political solution
0:15:27 > 0:15:29which would hold the country together.
0:15:30 > 0:15:36And the way he chose to do it was, if you like, to dilute the problem,
0:15:37 > 0:15:39to drown it, if you like,
0:15:40 > 0:15:44by inventing 15 other autonomous regions.
0:15:46 > 0:15:50The new regional governments were given extensive powers to make law
0:15:50 > 0:15:54and, critically, to borrow and spend in their own right.
0:15:57 > 0:15:59- TRANSLATION:- I believe the model has worked relatively well.
0:15:59 > 0:16:02Perhaps the main defect of the model is that autonomous
0:16:02 > 0:16:06communities are responsible for certain spending policies,
0:16:06 > 0:16:10health and education, but income is in the hands of the State.
0:16:13 > 0:16:16These autonomous local governments with large budgets
0:16:16 > 0:16:19but limited accountability for what they spent
0:16:19 > 0:16:22would come to play a central role in the current crisis.
0:16:24 > 0:16:26And there was another feature of regional Spain
0:16:26 > 0:16:29which would also play its part.
0:16:29 > 0:16:34Every region has its own local banks, known as cajas de ahorros.
0:16:34 > 0:16:36There are different cajas in every Spanish city.
0:16:39 > 0:16:42Cajas are the Spanish equivalent of building societies,
0:16:42 > 0:16:47and they were effectively local savings banks.
0:16:47 > 0:16:49Cajas and savings banks were the ones
0:16:49 > 0:16:50that were in touch with ordinary people
0:16:50 > 0:16:53who wanted to buy their houses
0:16:53 > 0:16:56and they gave them very good conditions to do so.
0:16:57 > 0:17:01Small and locally managed, no-one imagined these cajas
0:17:01 > 0:17:04could represent a threat to Spain's banking system.
0:17:05 > 0:17:08And in the heady days of the new democracy,
0:17:08 > 0:17:12the focus was on turning the country into a modern, European economy.
0:17:14 > 0:17:17Mrs Thatcher and the other EEC leaders are meeting in Brussels
0:17:17 > 0:17:20in triumphant mood after agreement
0:17:20 > 0:17:22on Spain and Portugal's entry into the Common Market.
0:17:25 > 0:17:29In 1986, Spain became a member of the European Economic Community.
0:17:32 > 0:17:34- NEWSREADER:- The Spanish and the Portuguese,
0:17:34 > 0:17:35waiting anxiously in the wings,
0:17:35 > 0:17:38were so relieved they burst into song.
0:17:40 > 0:17:44The aspiration of being part of the European Union
0:17:44 > 0:17:47was a very important magnetic pull for us.
0:17:48 > 0:17:53Europe offered a completely different opportunity,
0:17:53 > 0:17:56offered the possibility of democracy,
0:17:56 > 0:17:59offered something that would guarantee democracy and so on,
0:17:59 > 0:18:02so Spaniards embraced Europe
0:18:02 > 0:18:06in a way that even the French and the Germans didn't.
0:18:06 > 0:18:10There was enormous enthusiasm for Europe.
0:18:12 > 0:18:16Felipe Gonzalez was the Prime Minister who took Spain into Europe.
0:18:16 > 0:18:20Six years later, in the Dutch town of Maastricht, the European Union
0:18:20 > 0:18:25was created and the first moves towards a single currency began.
0:18:25 > 0:18:28Spain was at the very heart of the European dream.
0:18:29 > 0:18:33TRANSLATION: I was one of the signatories of the Maastricht Treaty
0:18:33 > 0:18:36and I'm sure that what I shared when I was in the Council,
0:18:36 > 0:18:39with Mitterrand on one side and Helmut Kohl on the other,
0:18:39 > 0:18:41well, that doesn't exist today.
0:18:46 > 0:18:48Membership of the European Union
0:18:48 > 0:18:52was meant to lock Spain into prosperity and democracy.
0:18:54 > 0:18:58European grants and subsidies helped fund new roads and railways.
0:18:59 > 0:19:02We had some help from the European Union.
0:19:02 > 0:19:06We had money come into the structural funds that we can receive
0:19:06 > 0:19:12because we were below the average per capita in the European Union,
0:19:12 > 0:19:15and therefore we had to receive money from the European Union
0:19:15 > 0:19:16for a long period of time.
0:19:18 > 0:19:22The Spanish love affair with construction grew stronger.
0:19:22 > 0:19:26As Spaniards got richer, more and more of them borrowed
0:19:26 > 0:19:27to buy their own homes
0:19:27 > 0:19:30in a country where most people had traditionally rented.
0:19:31 > 0:19:34So very early in the life of democratic Spain,
0:19:34 > 0:19:37you've got these three things that would prove crucial
0:19:37 > 0:19:39once the financial storm hit.
0:19:39 > 0:19:42A country heavily geared towards construction,
0:19:42 > 0:19:45powerful and independent regional governments,
0:19:45 > 0:19:49and local banks, for whom regulation was extremely poor.
0:19:53 > 0:19:54But, when times are good,
0:19:54 > 0:19:57structural problems like this don't really get noticed,
0:19:57 > 0:20:01and in Spain, times were about to get really good.
0:20:05 > 0:20:07NEWSREADER: Tonight's launch of the Euro
0:20:07 > 0:20:09marks an historic step for 12 countries.
0:20:12 > 0:20:17In January 2002, Spain became a founder member of the Euro.
0:20:18 > 0:20:21NEWSREADER: In Spain, the banks opened to try to encourage people
0:20:21 > 0:20:22to exchange their pesetas.
0:20:22 > 0:20:25The demand was overwhelming, the queues long.
0:20:28 > 0:20:31In doing so, it had linked itself to the mighty German economy
0:20:31 > 0:20:34that sits at the centre of Europe,
0:20:34 > 0:20:36and almost instantly it felt the benefits.
0:20:36 > 0:20:41Spaniards could suddenly borrow at rock bottom, German interest rates.
0:20:43 > 0:20:46You know, there was a big boom in investment
0:20:46 > 0:20:47and in private consumption,
0:20:47 > 0:20:49as people borrow.
0:20:49 > 0:20:51There was a huge boom in bank lending.
0:20:51 > 0:20:54In Spain, that mainly manifested itself in the property market.
0:20:56 > 0:21:00Property became first easy to buy,
0:21:00 > 0:21:03and then it went up and up and people said,
0:21:03 > 0:21:05"Well, property is safe,
0:21:05 > 0:21:09"I want to put my money in bricks because that never falls."
0:21:12 > 0:21:16Spaniards steamed into the property market and construction companies
0:21:16 > 0:21:19jumped at the chance to build thousands of new homes.
0:21:19 > 0:21:22They were helped by a revolution in the planning laws.
0:21:24 > 0:21:28The Land Act left local municipalities to decide
0:21:28 > 0:21:32what was building land and what was not building land,
0:21:32 > 0:21:36so with the stroke of a pencil on the map,
0:21:36 > 0:21:40you made agricultural land into urban land,
0:21:40 > 0:21:44and perhaps somebody was helped with his private expenses,
0:21:44 > 0:21:48and so it's been a source of corruption
0:21:48 > 0:21:53because of the amount of power given to local municipalities.
0:21:58 > 0:22:00'The Spanish countryside is now scarred
0:22:00 > 0:22:04'with sprawling and unregulated development.'
0:22:07 > 0:22:09'The small town of San Miguel has not escaped.'
0:22:12 > 0:22:15'Whole estates of houses were built, along with roads,
0:22:15 > 0:22:18'street lighting and local amenities.'
0:22:20 > 0:22:22'Spain is now littered with ghost towns like this.'
0:22:31 > 0:22:32'The point of the Land Act
0:22:32 > 0:22:35'was to solve the problem of escalating house prices.'
0:22:38 > 0:22:41The idea was more homes would be built, and they were,
0:22:41 > 0:22:44and that prices would fall.
0:22:44 > 0:22:46But prices carried on rising.
0:22:51 > 0:22:55In less than ten years, Spanish property prices doubled.
0:22:55 > 0:22:57Thousands of Brits joined the frenzy.
0:22:57 > 0:22:59Who would not want a home in the sun?
0:23:03 > 0:23:06Some estate agents actually had their own aircraft and filled
0:23:06 > 0:23:10them up back in the UK and brought them over on inspection tours.
0:23:13 > 0:23:17Then some of the estate agents could sell up to 100 houses a week.
0:23:20 > 0:23:22Millions of Spaniards switched jobs
0:23:22 > 0:23:25to the lucrative construction industry.
0:23:25 > 0:23:29Economic boom led to higher wages and even more willingness to borrow.
0:23:31 > 0:23:35And the banks, including the local savings banks, the cajas,
0:23:35 > 0:23:37were only too happy to oblige.
0:23:38 > 0:23:42When you went to ask for a mortgage they said, "All right,
0:23:42 > 0:23:46"we'll value your house generously and then we'll give you 80%,
0:23:46 > 0:23:49"perhaps 100% of the value of your house, and we'll give you a little
0:23:49 > 0:23:52"more for your daughter's wedding and for the car on your holidays."
0:23:52 > 0:23:58So there's been a lot of bad behaviour by savings banks and banks.
0:24:00 > 0:24:03But while times were good, nobody cared.
0:24:03 > 0:24:05Banks offered mortgages on very cheap terms
0:24:05 > 0:24:08to help sell the millions of newly-built homes.
0:24:09 > 0:24:13By about 2008, half the cement in Europe was being used in Spain.
0:24:13 > 0:24:17You know, the whole place was like a forest of cranes.
0:24:17 > 0:24:21I think they built 750,000 homes per year,
0:24:21 > 0:24:23in a country where they normally built 250,000.
0:24:31 > 0:24:35And Spain's regional governments had also joined the party.
0:24:36 > 0:24:40The Guggenheim art gallery put Bilbao on the map.
0:24:40 > 0:24:42Now everywhere else joined in
0:24:42 > 0:24:45with glamorous and expensive public projects.
0:24:48 > 0:24:50'San Miguel is in the region of Valencia.'
0:24:50 > 0:24:53'It's two hours drive to the regional capital,
0:24:53 > 0:24:54'the city of Valencia.'
0:24:57 > 0:25:00The government there was determined to raise its profile
0:25:00 > 0:25:02by joining the pubic building frenzy.
0:25:06 > 0:25:08As Spain's economic crisis deepens,
0:25:08 > 0:25:12I've come to join a tour of Valencia's public building projects.
0:25:12 > 0:25:15The mood here today is very different from the heady optimism
0:25:15 > 0:25:17at the height of the boom.
0:25:32 > 0:25:34You're going to sit in the first or second.
0:25:34 > 0:25:36OK, thank you. Second.
0:25:37 > 0:25:40This coach trip, which is called the tour of squandering,
0:25:40 > 0:25:44is a regular event organised by activists to highlight the way
0:25:44 > 0:25:47they claim the Valencian government has wasted public money.
0:25:50 > 0:25:52What's that called?
0:25:52 > 0:25:53It is the opera...
0:25:53 > 0:25:55Opera house. How much did it cost?
0:25:56 > 0:25:58It cost, like, almost 400 million Euros.
0:26:01 > 0:26:02It's a nice building.
0:26:02 > 0:26:05It's a nice building. A very expensive building.
0:26:06 > 0:26:08Do we know who financed that?
0:26:08 > 0:26:10The Valencian government.
0:26:10 > 0:26:12The Valencian government.
0:26:12 > 0:26:13Yes. That is now...
0:26:13 > 0:26:16Yeah. And now they can't even pay their bills. Yeah.
0:26:18 > 0:26:21'Valencia's regional government is currently in debt
0:26:21 > 0:26:23'to the tune of 25 billion euros.'
0:26:28 > 0:26:31'Now, it's struggling to pay for essential public services.'
0:26:33 > 0:26:34And what is this?
0:26:34 > 0:26:36It's a school.
0:26:36 > 0:26:39Because, to me, that looks like a bunch of containers
0:26:39 > 0:26:40on a container ship.
0:26:42 > 0:26:43'Despite appearances,
0:26:43 > 0:26:46'I'm told this is a primary school called College 103.'
0:26:48 > 0:26:50I can see even up there, there's a banner saying,
0:26:50 > 0:26:53'No To The Containers'.
0:26:55 > 0:26:59'Parents are campaigning for a proper school to be built.'
0:26:59 > 0:27:00Eso fue hace cinco anos.
0:27:00 > 0:27:05Five years ago they built this temporary construction.
0:27:05 > 0:27:07They have been waiting for five years.
0:27:07 > 0:27:09And when will the real construction?
0:27:09 > 0:27:10They didn't get a response yet.
0:27:29 > 0:27:32WOMAN SPEAKS SPANISH
0:27:32 > 0:27:34'Next stop, the port area.'
0:27:34 > 0:27:37'Houses, parks and businesses were bulldozed here
0:27:37 > 0:27:41'at a cost of 2.7 billion to make way for the America's Cup,
0:27:41 > 0:27:43'an international yachting tournament.'
0:27:43 > 0:27:46'After just two seasons, it won't be coming back.'
0:27:54 > 0:27:58'Hosting Formula 1 was another short-lived glory project.'
0:28:05 > 0:28:07'But this is the piece de resistance.'
0:28:07 > 0:28:12'The city of arts and sciences cost 1.3 billion euros to build
0:28:12 > 0:28:15'and tens of millions more to maintain each year.'
0:28:20 > 0:28:22It is spectacular, this place.
0:28:22 > 0:28:26There is nothing like it in the United Kingdom, architecturally,
0:28:26 > 0:28:30in terms of scope and adventurousness,
0:28:30 > 0:28:35but it is white, it does look a bit like an elephant,
0:28:35 > 0:28:38and you do wonder what the impact,
0:28:38 > 0:28:40not only of building it, but of maintaining it,
0:28:40 > 0:28:45is on a city like Valencia with less than a million people.
0:28:49 > 0:28:51You are part of a new administration here in Valencia.
0:28:53 > 0:28:56It does seem like the old administration spent a lot of money
0:28:56 > 0:29:01on projects that could be best described as prestige
0:29:01 > 0:29:07and in some ways beautiful, but not useful to the people of Valencia.
0:29:08 > 0:29:12Well, it's very difficult to calculate the impact.
0:29:12 > 0:29:14The previous government has created
0:29:14 > 0:29:16the most attractive tourist spot
0:29:16 > 0:29:19in Spain, so long-term it's like
0:29:19 > 0:29:21saying OK, the Pharaoh
0:29:21 > 0:29:25who built the pyramid was crazy, but it's a long term investment.
0:29:25 > 0:29:27Long term it will pay back.
0:29:27 > 0:29:31Short term, obviously we're paying huge amounts a month of interest.
0:29:33 > 0:29:35People in Valencia said to us,
0:29:35 > 0:29:37"Look, we love this building, it's beautiful,
0:29:37 > 0:29:43"but we'd rather have schools that weren't made out of sea containers."
0:29:43 > 0:29:44How did that happen?
0:29:46 > 0:29:49Well, there are not so many schools with sea containers.
0:29:49 > 0:29:51There are schools with sea containers.
0:29:51 > 0:29:52There was a construction programme
0:29:52 > 0:29:56which was capable of doing 400 schools.
0:29:56 > 0:30:01Now we can't spend so much, so the programme to convert the schools
0:30:01 > 0:30:05into brick schools is going slower.
0:30:07 > 0:30:08As the building binge went on,
0:30:08 > 0:30:12Valencia's projects became more and more excessive.
0:30:13 > 0:30:17As late as 2011, a new airport was opened at Castellon.
0:30:22 > 0:30:29It had cost 150 million euros, but its main air strip had been built
0:30:29 > 0:30:34too narrow and, so far, not a single plane has landed there.
0:30:41 > 0:30:43TRANSLATION: One of the positive factors of Spain
0:30:43 > 0:30:46is that its infrastructure is much better.
0:30:46 > 0:30:49That's one thing, but it's a bit different from the megalomaniac
0:30:49 > 0:30:52madness of building an airport where no planes go.
0:30:59 > 0:31:02'Valencia's politicians were only able to go on this massive spending
0:31:02 > 0:31:05'spree because they had a very special relationship
0:31:05 > 0:31:08'with their local savings banks, the cajas.'
0:31:11 > 0:31:14'One bank that helped them out to the tune of billions of euros
0:31:14 > 0:31:18'was Bancaixa, the biggest savings bank in the Valencia region.'
0:31:21 > 0:31:23'One of the members of its board
0:31:23 > 0:31:27'was a professor at Valencia University's economics faculty.'
0:31:30 > 0:31:35'Jordi Palafox sat on the board between 1998 and 2006,
0:31:35 > 0:31:36'most of the boom years.'
0:31:38 > 0:31:41How does the board of a caja work? Who takes the decisions?
0:31:42 > 0:31:44When I was in Bancaixa,
0:31:44 > 0:31:46there were basically three components of the board.
0:31:46 > 0:31:49The first one were the savers
0:31:49 > 0:31:53and obviously most of them have no economic knowledge.
0:31:55 > 0:31:58The second part was entrepreneurs,
0:31:58 > 0:32:03some of them with loans given by the same caja.
0:32:03 > 0:32:06Some of the board were actually people who were being loaned money
0:32:06 > 0:32:09for their businesses by the very bank they were running?
0:32:09 > 0:32:10Exactly.
0:32:12 > 0:32:14So they have a conflict of interests.
0:32:14 > 0:32:17In my opinion, a clear conflict of interest with the cajas.
0:32:17 > 0:32:23And the third block were politicians, some kind of second rank politicians.
0:32:23 > 0:32:25So let me just get this clear.
0:32:27 > 0:32:32The board was made up of savers who knew very little about economics,
0:32:32 > 0:32:36business people who were making decisions about the bank's future
0:32:36 > 0:32:39and getting the loans from the bank,
0:32:39 > 0:32:42and politicians who were getting little grants from the bank
0:32:42 > 0:32:45to help their local festival.
0:32:45 > 0:32:46That's it.
0:32:49 > 0:32:52'Bancaixa provided huge amounts of credit to Valencia's regional
0:32:52 > 0:32:55'government as well as to private property developers,
0:32:55 > 0:32:59'with disastrous consequences.'
0:32:59 > 0:33:00How many other people in that caja system
0:33:00 > 0:33:02did what you did and questioned?
0:33:04 > 0:33:06During the years I was there, not one.
0:33:07 > 0:33:11'What had been just a local savings bank was now lending out billions
0:33:11 > 0:33:16'of euros, most of it tied up in the ever-expanding property market.'
0:33:18 > 0:33:20Well, I was quite a strange member of the board.
0:33:20 > 0:33:24When I discussed, they didn't take me very seriously.
0:33:24 > 0:33:29But I said we don't have enough capital
0:33:29 > 0:33:32to maintain this kind of expansion.
0:33:33 > 0:33:35What was the message coming back to you?
0:33:35 > 0:33:39That I was no-one and the Bank of Spain was saying that
0:33:39 > 0:33:45we don't have a bubble, and that the bubble, in any case,
0:33:45 > 0:33:49will disappear very slowly without any kind of problem.
0:33:52 > 0:33:58'But Spain was booming, its economy growing at a healthy 3% a year.'
0:33:58 > 0:34:01'Nobody wanted to listen to doom-mongers.'
0:34:05 > 0:34:07Unlike the regional authorities,
0:34:07 > 0:34:10Spain's national government was highly responsible.
0:34:10 > 0:34:13It kept its borrowing lower even than Germany,
0:34:13 > 0:34:16often running budget surpluses.
0:34:16 > 0:34:21In many ways, Spain looked like the great success story of Europe.
0:34:21 > 0:34:27Let me remind you, from the year 1998 or 9 to the year 2007,
0:34:27 > 0:34:32the level of growth of Spain was splendid.
0:34:32 > 0:34:36The level of employment, the creation of employment at that time,
0:34:36 > 0:34:39we created most of the jobs in the European Union.
0:34:39 > 0:34:43Three times the jobs of the UK, your country.
0:34:43 > 0:34:46The labour force increased by almost 40%.
0:34:48 > 0:34:52It was really a very, appeared to be a very solid moment.
0:34:52 > 0:34:55But in 2008, the world changed.
0:34:57 > 0:35:01NEWSREADER SPEAKS SPANISH
0:35:01 > 0:35:04A collapse in the American housing market left international financial
0:35:04 > 0:35:09institutions facing massive losses on so-called subprime mortgages.
0:35:09 > 0:35:13NEWSREADER SPEAKS SPANISH
0:35:16 > 0:35:17When we had the collapse of Lehmann
0:35:17 > 0:35:19in the US in 2008,
0:35:19 > 0:35:21the impact was that bank lending
0:35:21 > 0:35:23across the world froze.
0:35:27 > 0:35:29You had credit channels all freeze up
0:35:29 > 0:35:32and that meant that businesses couldn't borrow to invest,
0:35:32 > 0:35:35individuals couldn't borrow to pay off their mortgages.
0:35:37 > 0:35:40British and American banks needed huge government bail-outs
0:35:40 > 0:35:45to avoid the collapse of the entire financial system.
0:35:45 > 0:35:48But to Spain, the event seemed barely relevant.
0:35:48 > 0:35:51The health of a lot of banking systems at that point
0:35:51 > 0:35:55was measured in part on direct exposure to subprime lending
0:35:55 > 0:35:59in the US, and for Spain there wasn't a lot of exposure
0:35:59 > 0:36:01to subprime lending specifically.
0:36:01 > 0:36:04Then on that measure alone, Spain looked quite good.
0:36:06 > 0:36:09Just ten days after Lehman's went bust, Spain's Prime Minister,
0:36:09 > 0:36:14Jose Luis Zapatero, visited Wall Street in New York.
0:36:34 > 0:36:36Zapatero had good reason to smile.
0:36:36 > 0:36:39Spain's biggest banks, including Santander and BBVA,
0:36:39 > 0:36:42were in relatively good shape.
0:36:46 > 0:36:49TRANSLATION: At that moment, the government was thinking,
0:36:49 > 0:36:52reasonably enough, that our financial system
0:36:52 > 0:36:55was very minimally affected by the contagion
0:36:55 > 0:36:57of North American subprime.
0:36:58 > 0:37:02But on the contrary. In Spain, we had our own subprime.
0:37:09 > 0:37:13There had already been a warning that all was not well.
0:37:13 > 0:37:17A few months earlier, the largest property developer in Spain,
0:37:17 > 0:37:20Martinsa Fadesa, had filed for bankruptcy
0:37:20 > 0:37:23with a debt of seven billion euros.
0:37:24 > 0:37:27It was the largest default in Spanish history.
0:37:29 > 0:37:33The truth was the mighty Spanish construction industry
0:37:33 > 0:37:34was in trouble.
0:37:37 > 0:37:39It became clear that companies
0:37:39 > 0:37:41that were making money on property
0:37:41 > 0:37:43and on building and on construction
0:37:43 > 0:37:46were going to start losing money
0:37:46 > 0:37:49and so the fall started with the property
0:37:49 > 0:37:52and construction sector where we had a lot of employment.
0:37:53 > 0:37:57And those employed went into unemployment in droves.
0:38:03 > 0:38:07In San Miguel, most of these young people used to have well-paid jobs
0:38:07 > 0:38:09in the construction industry.
0:38:10 > 0:38:14Like many of the town's youngsters, they are now out of work.
0:38:41 > 0:38:45You can find scenes like this in every town in Spain.
0:38:45 > 0:38:48A quarter of the population are unemployed
0:38:48 > 0:38:51and more than half of under-25s.
0:38:56 > 0:38:59'At the neighbours' association, Loli Ballester
0:38:59 > 0:39:02'and a group of long-term unemployed people from San Miguel
0:39:02 > 0:39:06'have formed a task force to try and get back into work.'
0:39:06 > 0:39:07- Sientate.- Thank you.
0:39:07 > 0:39:08Como estamos, amigo?
0:39:08 > 0:39:11Hi, hi. Nice to meet you all.
0:39:11 > 0:39:13Nice to meet you.
0:39:13 > 0:39:16So, tell me about Los Angeles.
0:39:16 > 0:39:19'They advertise themselves as The Angels,
0:39:19 > 0:39:22'a band of workers willing to do any jobs around the town.'
0:39:23 > 0:39:26How has this group been able to help you?
0:39:57 > 0:39:59Can you give me an example of the way the crisis
0:39:59 > 0:40:01has affected your life,
0:40:01 > 0:40:03your family's life and people around you?
0:40:21 > 0:40:24'One of the Angels' target markets
0:40:24 > 0:40:26'is the huge community of British ex-pats.'
0:40:32 > 0:40:35'Pepe has found himself a gardening job with Jill Burden.'
0:40:38 > 0:40:41I'm asking him to clean the swimming pool,
0:40:42 > 0:40:48and then after that he's going to cut down some of my overgrown bushes.
0:40:48 > 0:40:51Very good. There are no problem.
0:40:51 > 0:40:54Fontanero aqui manana.
0:40:54 > 0:40:55Por la...
0:40:55 > 0:40:56Plumber, plumber.
0:40:56 > 0:40:58Plumber, plumber.
0:40:58 > 0:40:59Tomorrow the plumber.
0:40:59 > 0:41:01Tomorrow, manana...
0:41:01 > 0:41:02In the house...
0:41:02 > 0:41:06No, in the garage.
0:41:08 > 0:41:11Since the crisis started, British ex-pats like Jill
0:41:11 > 0:41:14have seen the value of their houses fall.
0:41:14 > 0:41:18My house has been on the market now for two years.
0:41:18 > 0:41:21Unfortunately, the people who want to buy now
0:41:21 > 0:41:24don't want to pay the money that I want for it.
0:41:25 > 0:41:30Many like Jill are retired, though, living on pensions and savings
0:41:30 > 0:41:34from Britain, and are not dependant on Spanish jobs or benefits.
0:41:35 > 0:41:38But for Pepe, and countless like him all over Spain,
0:41:38 > 0:41:40this is the new reality.
0:41:46 > 0:41:48No, three quarters.
0:41:48 > 0:41:50Tres cuartos? Fantastico!
0:41:54 > 0:41:56The best they can hope for now
0:41:56 > 0:41:59is odd jobs that add up to barely a living wage.
0:42:02 > 0:42:05Unemployment is a tragedy for Pepe and millions like him,
0:42:05 > 0:42:08but it's also a catastrophe for the economy.
0:42:12 > 0:42:16By the end of 2008, with far fewer people earning,
0:42:16 > 0:42:17tax revenues had plummeted.
0:42:20 > 0:42:24Spain's centre left government had to take action.
0:42:24 > 0:42:29The first thing the socialist government did was to spend more.
0:42:30 > 0:42:33They said the economy needs a stimulus.
0:42:33 > 0:42:34This is Plan E.
0:42:34 > 0:42:37This is Plan E, and so the first decision was to say
0:42:37 > 0:42:42there's no crisis but there's a little bit of rising unemployment.
0:42:42 > 0:42:43We can spend our way out of it.
0:42:46 > 0:42:49The programme was worth 11 billion euros.
0:42:50 > 0:42:52The money would go into infrastructure
0:42:52 > 0:42:53and building projects.
0:42:56 > 0:42:59Spain would build her way out of trouble.
0:43:04 > 0:43:06TRANSLATION: What Spain did during that first part of the crisis
0:43:06 > 0:43:08was apply counter-cyclical measures,
0:43:08 > 0:43:11recommended by the European Union and the IMF.
0:43:17 > 0:43:21Here in San Miguel, they spent 400,000 euros of government
0:43:21 > 0:43:25stimulus money building this very nice sports centre.
0:43:25 > 0:43:29It did provide some construction jobs while it was being built,
0:43:29 > 0:43:31but since then it's been largely unused.
0:43:31 > 0:43:33People just can't afford the fees.
0:43:33 > 0:43:36And there are thousands of white elephant projects
0:43:36 > 0:43:39just like this all across Spain.
0:43:41 > 0:43:43'By 2009, it was clear
0:43:43 > 0:43:46'the government stimulus plan had failed.'
0:43:46 > 0:43:50'Unemployment continued to rise, tax revenues fell,
0:43:50 > 0:43:53'government borrowing began to creep up.'
0:43:54 > 0:43:57'But this wasn't a good time for a country to be in debt.'
0:44:01 > 0:44:06Greece, then Ireland and Portugal, saw their debts spin out of control.
0:44:06 > 0:44:10Last year, each received bail-outs from the European Union and the IMF.
0:44:13 > 0:44:16Suddenly, European governments considered to be risky,
0:44:16 > 0:44:19like Spain, saw the interest rate they were charged
0:44:19 > 0:44:23to borrow money on the global markets go through the roof.
0:44:23 > 0:44:26Throughout this crisis, we have seen a flow of money.
0:44:26 > 0:44:30Investors don't want to lend Spain money now, because they aren't sure
0:44:30 > 0:44:33that the Spanish government is good for it and will ever pay them back.
0:44:33 > 0:44:38The government cannot viably keep paying
0:44:38 > 0:44:41very, very high interest rates for its borrowing.
0:44:41 > 0:44:47If, for example, the Spanish government is paying 5.5, 6.5, 7.5%
0:44:47 > 0:44:50to borrow money but the economy isn't growing,
0:44:50 > 0:44:55then its fiscal position is on a very, very alarming deterioration.
0:44:58 > 0:45:02As if this wasn't enough, another black hole was about to open up.
0:45:02 > 0:45:07Spain's local banking system, the cajas, now began to go under.
0:45:09 > 0:45:14Banks were up to their ears in property and suddenly,
0:45:14 > 0:45:18as property prices fell through the floor, many banks,
0:45:18 > 0:45:22especially savings banks, found that they were broke.
0:45:24 > 0:45:27As the Spanish economy deteriorated, many of the cajas
0:45:27 > 0:45:30had hidden their toxic loans by simply refusing to recognise
0:45:30 > 0:45:33the collapsing value of the housing on their books,
0:45:33 > 0:45:36and they had a very handy way of doing it.
0:45:36 > 0:45:39One of the interesting tweaks in the Spanish banking system
0:45:39 > 0:45:41is that the banks own a lot of estate agents.
0:45:41 > 0:45:44They kind of own their own estate agents, which is very useful
0:45:44 > 0:45:47when it comes to valuing properties because you can sort of pretend
0:45:47 > 0:45:49that they're worth more than they really are.
0:45:50 > 0:45:53For a couple of years after the crash, they went around basically
0:45:53 > 0:45:55just pretending that these empty properties
0:45:55 > 0:45:57were still worth something.
0:45:57 > 0:46:02'By the summer of 2010, Spain faced a full-blown banking crisis,
0:46:02 > 0:46:05'with the cajas revealing tens of billions of bad debt
0:46:05 > 0:46:08'that made them effectively bankrupt.'
0:46:10 > 0:46:12'The government came up with another plan.'
0:46:12 > 0:46:16This time, it was Plan B for Bankia.
0:46:19 > 0:46:22With the help of a 4.5 billion Euro bail-out
0:46:22 > 0:46:24from the Spanish government,
0:46:24 > 0:46:28Caja Madrid and the Valencian savings bank, Bancaixa, announced
0:46:28 > 0:46:31they would merge with a number of smaller banks to form Bankia.
0:46:35 > 0:46:39Spain essentially took six unhealthy banks and merged them together
0:46:39 > 0:46:44into a big conglomerate, Bankia, and then was really surprised
0:46:44 > 0:46:46when Bankia was actually really unhealthy.
0:46:47 > 0:46:50That was a mistake both by the economics ministry
0:46:50 > 0:46:52and the Bank of Spain.
0:46:52 > 0:46:55There was this idea that you needed large institutions
0:46:55 > 0:46:57to be able to survive.
0:46:59 > 0:47:01The government encouraged other mergers as well,
0:47:01 > 0:47:04as more and more cajas ran into trouble.
0:47:04 > 0:47:07The scale of the damage was finally being revealed,
0:47:07 > 0:47:10with up to 100 billion euros of bad loans identified.
0:47:13 > 0:47:17With bust banks, rising unemployment and a soaring national debt,
0:47:17 > 0:47:19the Spanish government changed tack.
0:47:19 > 0:47:23It introduced an austerity programme of spending cuts and tax hikes.
0:47:25 > 0:47:28It was the message the rest of Europe wanted to hear.
0:47:30 > 0:47:33This painful adjustment is absolutely needed.
0:47:33 > 0:47:36The economies that have lost competitiveness
0:47:36 > 0:47:40require painful adjustments
0:47:40 > 0:47:41increase in productivity,
0:47:41 > 0:47:44more economic dynamism,
0:47:44 > 0:47:48better fiscal policies to have sustainable public finances.
0:47:48 > 0:47:49All this is needed.
0:47:51 > 0:47:54'The fact was, the government had very little choice.'
0:47:54 > 0:47:56'In this kind of situation,
0:47:56 > 0:48:00'what most countries do is devalue their currency.'
0:48:00 > 0:48:04'It makes their exports cheap and makes borrowing less expensive.'
0:48:04 > 0:48:06'But Spain couldn't do this.'
0:48:09 > 0:48:13Spain is a member of the Euro Zone so it doesn't have its own currency,
0:48:13 > 0:48:15it doesn't have its own central bank,
0:48:15 > 0:48:20it doesn't have any rights or jurisdiction over a currency.
0:48:21 > 0:48:24It is a participant with 16 other countries
0:48:24 > 0:48:25in the management of the Euro.
0:48:27 > 0:48:29Locked in a single currency,
0:48:29 > 0:48:33austerity was seen as the only way for Spain to become competitive
0:48:33 > 0:48:37with countries like Germany and to avoid going spectacularly bankrupt.
0:48:41 > 0:48:43But the Spanish people had other ideas.
0:48:43 > 0:48:47In May 2011, more than a million of them took to the streets,
0:48:47 > 0:48:49young people who had never before protested,
0:48:49 > 0:48:52from Madrid to the smallest towns.
0:48:52 > 0:48:56They called themselves Los Indignados, the indignant ones.
0:48:57 > 0:49:00Amid the public fury came the election.
0:49:00 > 0:49:02The centre-left government was swept away.
0:49:04 > 0:49:07But the new administration of Mariano Rajoy
0:49:07 > 0:49:08arrived with a familiar message.
0:49:14 > 0:49:18The right wing Partido Popular proposed even harsher
0:49:18 > 0:49:21austerity measures to tackle the spiralling debt.
0:49:21 > 0:49:23And there was still more bad news.
0:49:23 > 0:49:27Two years after being formed from the merger of struggling cajas,
0:49:27 > 0:49:29the giant Bankia collapsed
0:49:29 > 0:49:34and had to be bailed out by the government with 19 billion euros.
0:49:36 > 0:49:38It was money the country could ill afford.
0:49:38 > 0:49:41Earlier this year, several of Spain's regional governments,
0:49:41 > 0:49:44like Valencia, started to come clean
0:49:44 > 0:49:47about their own financial black holes.
0:49:47 > 0:49:50They'd accumulated massive debts on public projects
0:49:50 > 0:49:53with devastating consequences for ordinary people.
0:49:55 > 0:49:58Things are so bad in Valencia, that the local government
0:49:58 > 0:50:01can't even pay the region's pharmacies the money they owe them
0:50:01 > 0:50:03for prescriptions.
0:50:04 > 0:50:06- Buenas tardes.- Buenas tardes.
0:50:06 > 0:50:07- It's Paula?- Paula.
0:50:07 > 0:50:10Paula. Nice to meet you. I'm Paul Mason.
0:50:10 > 0:50:14Tell me what's happening with the pharmacy system in this city.
0:50:14 > 0:50:15It seems to be breaking down.
0:50:22 > 0:50:25'Because she hasn't been paid by the government for six months,
0:50:25 > 0:50:29'Paula has been forced to cut back her stock levels.'
0:50:29 > 0:50:33'The pharmacy is beginning to run out of basic medicines.'
0:50:33 > 0:50:35There's hardly anything here.
0:50:35 > 0:50:37Normally, it's todo lleno.
0:50:37 > 0:50:38Full.
0:50:38 > 0:50:41Do you have to ever send people away who are really sick?
0:50:41 > 0:50:42Si.
0:50:42 > 0:50:43What kind of illnesses?
0:50:49 > 0:50:51And how does it make you feel?
0:51:09 > 0:51:12'If Paula and the other pharmacies aren't paid soon,
0:51:12 > 0:51:14'they may have to close.'
0:51:14 > 0:51:19'Valencia has become Spain's most indebted region and one of four
0:51:19 > 0:51:21'who have so far been bailed out
0:51:21 > 0:51:23'by the cash-strapped central government.'
0:51:25 > 0:51:29By 2012, Spain was facing the perfect storm.
0:51:29 > 0:51:32Its local banks, mired in corruption and huge losses,
0:51:32 > 0:51:36many of its biggest regions effectively bankrupt,
0:51:36 > 0:51:41and with the housing bubble well and truly burst, mass unemployment.
0:51:41 > 0:51:44For this, one of the biggest economies in the world,
0:51:44 > 0:51:46it seemed there could be only one way out.
0:51:52 > 0:51:54When a country looks like going bust,
0:51:54 > 0:51:57international markets are unforgiving.
0:51:57 > 0:51:59The interest rates they charge become so high
0:51:59 > 0:52:03that a government has no choice but to look for a bail-out,
0:52:03 > 0:52:06a massive cheap loan from an international institution.
0:52:08 > 0:52:12And when you get a bail-out, you then get lots of officials from the EU
0:52:12 > 0:52:14and the IMF come in and they take over the government
0:52:14 > 0:52:18and you have to pretty much surrender economic sovereignty.
0:52:18 > 0:52:23But Spain had watched as Greece, Portugal and Ireland were humiliated
0:52:23 > 0:52:26when tough conditions and outside control
0:52:26 > 0:52:28were attached to the bail-out money.
0:52:28 > 0:52:30It was determined not to follow.
0:52:30 > 0:52:34So began a tortured period of negotiation with the leader
0:52:34 > 0:52:39of the Eurozone's dominant economy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
0:52:39 > 0:52:42Germany is only really willing to stump up money for Spain
0:52:42 > 0:52:46if they can dictate the terms and can impose a lot of conditions,
0:52:46 > 0:52:50so there will be a lot of negotiating going forward.
0:52:50 > 0:52:52The Spanish are using their size
0:52:52 > 0:52:55and they're using their leverage to try and get better terms.
0:52:55 > 0:52:57I mean, they don't want to submit to what the Greeks
0:52:57 > 0:53:01and the Portuguese and the Irish have submitted to.
0:53:01 > 0:53:04In the game of bluff and double bluff,
0:53:04 > 0:53:08Spain, in the end, always had one very strong card to play.
0:53:09 > 0:53:12Either you save us or the Euro sinks.
0:53:12 > 0:53:15That's a very powerful blackmail, isn't it?
0:53:15 > 0:53:20Because the Euro cannot survive if Spain fails totally.
0:53:20 > 0:53:23That would be catastrophic for the single currency,
0:53:23 > 0:53:25because if Spain was forced out of the euro
0:53:25 > 0:53:27then who else is safe, you know?
0:53:27 > 0:53:30Why not France, why not Italy, why not Austria?
0:53:35 > 0:53:37Negotiations dragged on for months
0:53:37 > 0:53:40as Spain's economic situation continued to worsen.
0:53:41 > 0:53:44And on the streets of Spain, a more violent element
0:53:44 > 0:53:46has entered the mass protest movement.
0:53:48 > 0:53:53This summer, Spanish miners fought running battles with the police.
0:53:53 > 0:53:56There is a real risk that this recession turns into a full-blown
0:53:56 > 0:54:02depression, with all the potential for social upheaval that entails.
0:54:02 > 0:54:03But even more is at stake.
0:54:03 > 0:54:06The integrity of the Spanish state itself.
0:54:06 > 0:54:10Its richest region, Catalonia, is pushing for independence.
0:54:10 > 0:54:14Catalan nationalism has been around for years, but until now,
0:54:14 > 0:54:17cultural freedom and a degree of autonomy have been enough.
0:54:17 > 0:54:21Now, though, Madrid has nothing left to give this region,
0:54:21 > 0:54:24and demands for outright independence are becoming real.
0:54:29 > 0:54:32At the end of September, one and a half million people
0:54:32 > 0:54:36took to the streets of Barcelona to protest for Catalan independence.
0:54:41 > 0:54:45The economic crisis is putting huge strains on the political system that
0:54:45 > 0:54:49emerged as Spain embraced democracy after Franco's dictatorship.
0:54:54 > 0:54:56Many young Spaniards are starting to question
0:54:56 > 0:54:59whether they have a future in Spain at all.
0:55:01 > 0:55:03- Que pasa, tio? - Buenas, que tal?
0:55:05 > 0:55:07Even though he has a marketing degree,
0:55:07 > 0:55:10Sergio is working as a barman.
0:55:10 > 0:55:13His friend, Javi, a chemistry graduate,
0:55:13 > 0:55:15tried for five years to find work in Spain.
0:55:16 > 0:55:19Nine months ago, he decided he had to leave.
0:55:20 > 0:55:24Now, I'm in Edinburgh. I have been in Edinburgh for nine months.
0:55:26 > 0:55:28I live in a hostel.
0:55:28 > 0:55:32I work in a restaurant, like a kitchen porter.
0:55:32 > 0:55:35I cannot find anything else.
0:55:37 > 0:55:39I try to improve my English,
0:55:39 > 0:55:43and after that, try to find something about chemistry.
0:55:43 > 0:55:45But here in Spain, I cannot find anything.
0:55:47 > 0:55:50Javi is one of an estimated 300,000 graduates
0:55:50 > 0:55:52who've left Spain since the crisis started.
0:55:54 > 0:55:55I have friends in Belgium,
0:55:55 > 0:56:01I have friends in South America, I have friends in Finland, all over.
0:56:02 > 0:56:05Because here in Spain it is so difficult,
0:56:05 > 0:56:06it is like a tourist place.
0:56:12 > 0:56:15- TRANSLATION:- We are hoping not to lose a whole generation.
0:56:19 > 0:56:21This is the biggest risk for Spain.
0:56:24 > 0:56:26'For most, though, leaving isn't an option.'
0:56:59 > 0:57:04Spain is in uncharted territory because never before has so much
0:57:04 > 0:57:09austerity been piled on to an economy already in so much trouble.
0:57:09 > 0:57:11Spain has so far avoided a full-scale bail-out,
0:57:11 > 0:57:14but Europe's spending billions to keep it afloat.
0:57:14 > 0:57:17All these bail-out funds are just ways to try to buy time,
0:57:17 > 0:57:22for policy makers to come together and make the difficult agreements
0:57:22 > 0:57:24that they need to, to keep the Eurozone together.
0:57:27 > 0:57:30When countries that did pretty much what they were supposed to do
0:57:30 > 0:57:34still go bust then you have to step back a little bit and say, you
0:57:34 > 0:57:37know what, maybe there's something actually wrong with this currency.
0:57:39 > 0:57:42I know that there are obstacles, but at the end of the day,
0:57:42 > 0:57:45I am convinced that this is the direction.
0:57:45 > 0:57:49It has been the direction since the end of the Second World War,
0:57:51 > 0:57:54and this will continue to be the direction in the 21st century.
0:57:58 > 0:58:01'Nothing like the Euro has ever been tried before.'
0:58:01 > 0:58:05'So far, the Euro leaders have managed to bail out the countries
0:58:05 > 0:58:08'that went bust, but they were small.'
0:58:08 > 0:58:10'Spain is huge.'
0:58:10 > 0:58:14'Its people are very angry, and the only thing that's certain is,
0:58:14 > 0:58:18'for ordinary Spaniards, more suffering lies ahead.'
0:58:46 > 0:58:49Subtitles by Red Bee Media