A salve to national pride as Spain wins Euro 2012 title

Tens of thousands of people turned downtown Madrid into a sea of red late Sunday night, flooding the thoroughfares and taking over the main fountain square of the Spanish capital after the national soccer team won another European championship.

The street partying in Madrid was repeated across Spain, with flag-waving and chanting fans filling city squares while caravans of honking car drivers set off even before Spain had completed its 4-0 victory over Italy in the final, held in Kiev, Ukraine.

The success of La Roja, or the Red, as Spain's team is known, has - at least momentarily - helped overshadow the country's deepening recession and banking crisis, which forced the Spanish government to request a European bailout of up to 100 billion euros, or about $125 billion, to shore up its troubled banks. With almost a quarter of Spain's work force unemployed, many people here have appeared to be drowning their economic sorrows in La Roja's victories.

"This team cannot make the crisis go away, but it's managed to provide a level of joy and inspiration that goes well beyond what sports can produce in normal times," said Javier Morales, a doctor, who, like many others, was wearing the team's red shirt on Sunday night. "All the talk at the hospital has recently been about health care cuts, so I'm really looking forward to having something much happier to discuss in coming days."

Miguel Blanco, an 18-year-old student draped in a national flag, said, "The crisis has made Spain look like a hopeless country, when, in fact, we're showing tonight that we're the best in Europe."

Politicians have also jumped on the soccer bandwagon, led by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who was in the stadium in Kiev on Sunday, alongside Prince Felipe of Asturias, heir to the Spanish throne, and Mario Monti, Italy's prime minister.

Mr. Rajoy attended Spain's opening match of the tournament three weeks ago in Poland - a day after requesting the European bailout - justifying his trip by declaring the banking crisis "resolved."

Monday is not an official holiday in Spain, but it almost certainly will feel like one, given Sunday's late-night partying and the fact that more official celebrations are scheduled to take place Monday, when a huge crowd is expected to gather to welcome their returning soccer heroes.

But many people in Madrid seemed unhappy about allowing Mr. Rajoy to bask in La Roja's accomplishment. "Rajoy knows how to enjoy soccer, but not how to resolve a crisis," said David Hernandez Herrero, a 42-year-old health care worker. "Everybody knows that we're going to come back to earth with a thump because Rajoy has a lot more cuts and hardship in store for us."

La Roja's victory amounted to an unprecedented third consecutive soccer title, after the European championship in Vienna in 2008 and the World Cup in Johannesburg in 2010. But, even in a soccer-mad country like Spain now used to seeing its national team win, La Roja's latest glory run generated unparalleled passion. More than 18 million television viewers followed the penalty shootout last Wednesday against Portugal, setting a new TV audience record for any show, well ahead of the 14.5 million who watched two years ago when Spain won its first World Cup, in overtime against the Netherlands.

In Rome, Italians - and foreigners - who had gathered in the Campo de' Fiori to watch the game straggled desolately out of bars and restaurants afterward, mostly resigned to Spain's superior game. "We're sad but not upset, because Italy played a great European championship and no one expected they'd get so far, and play with so much heart," said Luca Reho, the owner of the Hostaria Romanesca restaurant on the square. Noting that Italy's premier soccer league was tainted this year by a match-fixing scandal that led to the arrest of several players, Mr. Reho said that the Italian national team gave a message of hope. "They made us proud," he said.

"I thought that after we beat Germany we would go the distance, but Spain deserved to win," said David Piperno, a tobacco shop owner from Rome who painted an Italian flag in a mohawk motif on his bald head in honor of Italian striker Mario Balotelli. "This time it went like this, but we'll get them at the World Cup."

Speaking on state broadcaster RAI after the game, Prime Minister Monti said that he had told the players after the game: "Guys, you made us dream; tonight we woke up." All Italians, he said, were grateful to the team, who did "something extraordinary."

Seeming to address the larger problems facing the country, which - like Spain - has been under pressure in the global financial markets in recent weeks, Mr. Monti said that Italians were "able to overcome moments of difficulty, when they work together."

Still, even some disappointed Italian residents of Madrid were willing to recognize the psychological importance of such a victory for recession-suffering Spaniards. "I feel sad, but it's true that soccer has turned into the opium of the people here," said Alessia Dell'Acqua, an Italian interior designer who has worked in Madrid for the last eight years. "It's almost the only source of satisfaction that Spaniards have left, and I can't imagine what the atmosphere would have been like at work this coming week if La Roja had lost."

Raphael Minder reported from Madrid, and Elisabetta Povoledo from Rome.