Any sources to support that "failed state" claim? Every country has corruption yet on the internet I only see spanish people saying their country is awful.
It seems to me that many people questioning this in this thread have not read anything about Spain, at all.
I'll bite and give you a few examples of why one could consider Spain a failed state:
- Consistently has one of the highest unemployment rates of the OECD. 10% was normal pre-2008, 15-25% has been the new normal ever since. Rates for young people in the 20-30 age group are typically between 40-50%, leading many to speak of a "lost generation".
- About half of the Catalans want to secede. Basques are right now at an uneasy peace thanks to favorable tax treatments, but before the defeat of terrorist group ETA about a decade ago, more than a thousand people were murdered in the name of Basque secession. Though violence is unlikely to return right now (hopefully), the Basque situation could become similar to Cataluña in a moment's notice. There is also a clear rise of nationalism in other regions where this was barely a problem (eg, Comunitat Valenciana or Baleares)
- The two main national parties have been part of massive corruption scandals, going from the national down to the local level (the article alludes to this). We're talking embezzlement in the billions, Roman-decadence levels of squandering (every town wanted its own airport), and intrigues that could be pulled off out of a cheap LeCarré knock-off.
- Education is quite poor, if not abysmal. Massive dropout rates in secondary education, really bad comparative performance in PISA reports, and barely any university makes it into top-200 institutions worldwide. Politicians keep changing the agenda every four years instead of trying to agree to a national pact to get us out of this hole.
These are just things off the top of my mind, but I could go on for a while.
Maybe the fact that you only see Spanish people talk poorly about the country is a reflection of us being the primary subjects of its blatant problems, and of the fact that few outsiders care?
The economy without the ECB aid could have already crashed like 2 o 3 times in the last ten years
Spain judicial system not following the constitutional rulebook when ordering new top judges
Biggest airport 4 days block cause the snow machine workers are not rehired