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-Zappo Wheels Out Big Guns
By EURSOC Two
11 February, 2005
http://www.eursoc.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/706
Spain's prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (alias: Mr. Bean) parades his Old Europe credentials this week by inviting France's president Chirac and Germany's chancellor Schröder to Barcelona to launch the campaign for a yes vote in Spain's constitutional referendum.
Mr. Bean
Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's PM, was said to have pulled out of the meeting at the last minute due to flu.
The Times reckons Spain's vote is a foregone conclusion. Only 7 percent of Spaniards plan to vote against the constitutional treaty, with 40 voting yes and 38 percent undecided. However, over 90 percent of voters know little about the EU constitutional treaty, despite a month-long government funded propaganda campaign explaining the benefits of EU membership. Condensed versions of the treaty have been handed out at newsstands and football matches.
According to the Times, Zappo's government has spent 7.5 million euros on the campaign - small beer, perhaps, compared to the estimated 80 billion Spain has received in EU subsidies over the past decades.
Still, one premier will look wistfully at Spain's propaganda budget. Britain's prime minister Tony Blair is strangely absent from Zapatero's guest list. There is no love lost between Blair and Zappo, despite the fact that both come from the centre-left tradition and have made a great show of not tampering too much with the economic inheritance of previous right-wing governments. That's where any similarity ends, however. Blair's support for the invasion of Iraq and his continued dedication to building democracy in the nation contrasts unhappily with Zapatero's shameful order for a Spanish retreat. Indeed, while Blair's links to president Bush make him unpopular with Spain's current regime, his close ties for Spain's previous PM, the honourable and decent José Maria Aznar, make him a definite persona non grata at Zappo-hosted Euro love ins.
Blair will find it difficult to get away with spending anything like the seven and a half million Zappo earmarked for yes campaign propaganda. He may be able to funnel EU money direct from Brussels into promotional material - but this is unclear.
Michael White in the Guardian complains that Britain's no campaign is well-funded, backed by the likes of Rupert Murdoch and Lord Rothermere's newspapers. Poor old Blair will have to rely on the Guardian, Independent and the Mirror.
Any gloating readers might enjoy at the prospect of the the Guardian and Indie - both determined enemies of Blair for the same reasons as Zappo - having to cheer on the PM in the referendum is soon dispelled by White's claim that Britain's broadcasters will be "neutral - that is, helpful."
As ever in Britain, the BBC is the one to watch here. Recently revealed to be soundly pro-EU by one of its own internal reports, the Beeb has also been accused, not altogether convincingly, of Euroscepticism by Britain's trade commissioner Peter Mandelson. The Beeb will watch its step as the build up to Britain's referendum continues: Viewers are wise to its usual trick of balancing a reasonable-sounding supporter of the Beeb's position with a swivel-eyed nutcase guaranteed to frighten voters away from contrarian positions.
The BBC is in a difficult position, though it is difficult to sympathise with the broadcaster. Post Kelly Affair, its broadcasts are being scrutinised more than any time since Mrs Thatcher's suspicion - not entirely unfounded - that the entire organisation was out to get her. Cable, digital and other subscription channels are circling, watching for any evidence that the tax-funded broadcaster is not fulfilling its brief.
Despite this, the government will be leaning heavily on the broadcaster to place its spokesmen in prominent slots to praise the constitutional treaty. As any PR expenditure on yes vote propaganda is likely to irritate Eurosceptic Brits even more, Blair's only chance to get his message across is to get his supporters into television studios and newspaper columns.
