Madrid - The Spanish economy contracted 0.5 percent in the first quarter of 2013, the Mediterranean country's seventh quarterly decrease. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy recently said that he was not going to ease austerity measures, and admitted that there was still a long way towards job creation. Just in February 2013, more than 100,000 companies went bankrupt in Spain. Small and midsize companies have always been the country's largest employer.
Spain's unemployment rate is over 26 percent, and more than 50 percent among young people. Many young Spaniards have decided to left the country. Most of them go to Latin America, Britain or Germany, but many have opted for the Czech Republic.
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Daniel Ordonez worked in the Czech Republic until January 2013. Now he is back in Spain, with a six-month employment contract. If he fails to renew his contract, he will return to Prague.
"When I left, there were already thousand of Spaniards in the Czech Republic. But their number is growing fast, and will continue to do so," said Ordonez.
"I was looking for a job in Spain fruitlessly, I even tried my luck in Italy. I sent my resume to possibly hundreds of places. Finally, I succeeded in the Czech Republic, I worked for the Spanish language service of Czech Radio. I also helped other Spaniards to find a job in Prague," said Ordonez.
Previously, Europe ended at the eastern border of Germany for Spaniards, and nobody thought about settling down in one of the former East Bloc countries such as the Czech Republic. But the crisis changed this.
"People ask me all the time to help them find a job in the Czech Republic, " said another Spaniard living in Prague, Carlos Ferrer. He says that most of them are IT professionals or people with technical or scientific background. "The interest is really high," he added.
Not only young professionals, but also some entrepreneurs have started to look east. Alejandro Villar is taking Czech lessons in Madrid. "Currently it is impossible to run a business in Spain. I am using my contacts in the Czech Republic to create websites there, and I would also like to open a business that sells sex toys and erotic lingerie. I run a sex shop here, I want to try something similar in your country," he said.
His Czech teacher is Dita Holubova, who has been in Spain for five years. She confirms that many Spaniards are considering leaving their native country, where they see no future for themselves. The Czech Republic is attractive for them, even though most of them know only the capital city, she said.
