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Spain will take over the presidency of the European Union six months from now, in January 2010, but public opinion and political parties are taking little interest in one of the great debates on the table: EU enlargement. In El País, Albert Branchadell, a professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, regrets that the issue was "barely discussed" during the latest European election campaigns.
Interviewed by the Madrid daily, Branchadell expressed the opinion that the Socialists, the ruling party, are not speaking on the subject enough, whereas the conservative opposition "is aligned with European ultra-conservatives in their hostility to admitting Turkey." As for the nationalists, "they sin by hypocritical pro-Europeanism." "The subject of enlargement has not been sufficiently pondered in Spain," the academic concluded.
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