Thinking democracy can be exported is a mistake: Spanish FM

Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said on a TV interview Wednesday that thinking democracy can be exported as soluble coffee is a mistake.

In the interview, where the minister commented the situation created by the attacks in Paris last Friday, Margallo said there were a number of mistakes the Western community had made.

"Firstly, we failed in our model of integration, many of the people who commit these attacks have French nationality, Spanish nationality... we have failed to integrate them and make them adapt to Western values," the Minister said.

"The second mistake was to believe that democracy could be exported as soluble Nescafe, this is not like that," he said.

"The third is taking decisions to intervene, without knowing what we were going to do the day after." The Minister gave an example: "We all agreed in kicking Gaddafi out but nobody knew what was going to be done the next day."

Margallo is confident that there is a solution and said "this weekend things have changed for the better" since many countries are beginning to coordinate forces. "Russia and France have agreed that they will collaborate," the minister said.

Margallo emphasized the special characteristics of the phenomenon DAESH or the self-proclaimed Islamic State. "It is a very modern phenomenon in terms of military technology and social networks" and highlighted the characteristics of the attack in Paris that meant something new: an indiscriminate attack in a Western country by cells very well coordinated from outside.

Margallo said "in Spain, we are doing everything possible to be ready, on information, on border control, in terms of security forces, etc., but it is very difficult to stop a man or woman who is willing to kill him or herself," he said. Endit