Minister of the Exterior Juan Manuel García Magallo has quieted a campaign to consolidate Spanish embassies in foreign countries so that regional governments can keep opening expensive foreign offices despite running excessive deficits.
But representing the country well is the mission of all Spain's embassies and business offices located in foreign countries. Strangely, we have 118 national embassies throughout the world while the regional governments have 150.
The government is not saying how much these offices will cost, although some estimations suggests around 160 million euros for outfitting 100 regional government embassies. The question is whether it makes sense to have double the political representation and business presence in other countries, which could diffuse rather than strengthen Spain?s presence there.
García Magallo is promoting a vacuous campaign for the Spanish brand. His project lacks both seriousness and is not fundamentally sound. True, beneath the veneer of promoting Spanish businesses, spreading regional embassies to other countries will yield questionable results for Spain, but prime benefits to people looking to get cushy foreign jobs through political or family connections.
This situation is a result of Spain's feeble foreign policy, which lacks true leadership and handles its work carelessly. The government should use public sector reforms to nix these redundance regional government embassies.
