When Juan Manuel Moreno presented himself as a candidate in the 2018 Andalusian elections, he already told his people that his aspiration was to turn Andalusia, one of the poorest regions in Western Europe, into the “Bavaria of Spain”, an idea that he reiterated four years later, shortly before achieving the absolute majority. Since he came to the Government, he has insisted that his community is becoming a “locomotive” of the country and that it is going to compete head-to-head with Madrid and Catalonia for leadership. During this time, some macroeconomic indicators – the community is growing at a faster rate than the average and is one of those that generates the most employment in absolute numbers – have allowed Moreno to settle into a triumphalist discourse and his party to even speak of an “Andalusian economic miracle.” However, there are shadows over this discourse, and data that contradicts these triumphalist theses.
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