The last of his kind
It’s unlikely that many readers out there will know who the man sitting alone at the recent EU summit to resolve the Greek debt crisis. His name is Mariano Rajoy, and he’s the Spanish prime minister.
Photographs can deceive, but in this case, the reason the Spanish premiere is sitting alone while his EU counterparts have a good old chinwag is because he has no language skills: during the two sessions in Brussels, he was the only member of the 19 delegates who required simultaneous translation when speeches were being made. The rest of the time he was unable to discuss events with anybody. It’s very difficult todo esto.
Mariano Rajoy is the only candidate standing in the November general elections in Spain who doesn’t speak English in a meaningful sense. The rest of them speak fluent English, and some of them also French and Italian. But the limitations my country’s prime minister faces are not just linguistic, his communication skills are practically zero in his own language. These days it is common to see leading politicians using the social networks as part of their pr strategy, and sometimes they even create headlines in this way.
Over the last week, several ministers at the Eurogroup meeting regularly tweeted. Barack Obama not only has his own Twitter account, usually handled by his communications team unless he signs the tweet with -BO, but another one,@POTUS, in which every single tweet is written by him. Politicians tweeting is a sign of the times, part of the way we now understand politics. The most powerful man in the world has time to write 140-letter messages, and believes doing so is important enough to have his own account. But Mariano Rajoy doesn’t think so, doesn’t want to do so, or perhaps thinks such things are frivolous. Houston, we have a problem…
All the candidates running for prime minister in November, except Mariano Rajoy, also use the social networks as part of their communication strategy, regularly tweeting about what they are up to or what they think. Rajoy has, at most, sent out the odd text message, not that anybody can remember what he said.
Sadly, this is no laughing matter. Rajoy is (hopefully) the last Spanish politician who cannot speak a foreign language. What is going on when we expect shop assistants, waiters, and CEOs to speak English, but the head of government is barely able to order a cup of tea? One can only wonder what is going through his mind when he attends a summit and knows that he won’t be able to talk to anybody, and that other leaders are going to be laughing at him. Rajoy stands along in Europe in failing to see the importance of speaking the world’s lingua franca, and in the process reveals much about his priorities.
A throwback to another time, Rajoy gives the impression that not understanding another language, not knowing how to use modern communications somehow doesn’t matter, and sadly, nobody in his own party seems willing to take him aside to point out that these things are important in this day and age.
Language skills and understanding technology do not necessarily make a politician better, but not having them is clearly a limitation, and a serious one if you wish to make your way in this world, and to exercise even the smallest influence on behalf of your country. Particularly if you’re the last of your kind.
(En español, aquí)
