Op-ed: Regional governments in the spotlight

As Spanish regional governments begin to assimilate the 2012 national budget, the rumor that some regions will reject their budget constraints is causing a ruckus.

At no point should regional government administrations forget that they are part of the nation state and that their decisions influence whether other regions can regain stability at an especially critical time.

Reorganizing government services in order to avoid redundancy and restructuring the public sector are not to be confused with dismantling the regional system that has been fruitful for Spain.

On Saturday Rajoy met with People's Party leaders to talk about strategies for meeting the budget-debt objective, and the world will be focused on the regional government's ability to do so.