Spain could be in for a promising future as a middle power.

According to statistics, as many as 41% of new jobs in the EU are created in Spain. Yes, a lot of these are eating away at the country's chronically high unemployment rate, but Spain has a number of massive advantages over other EU countries and G20 members.

Migration and demography: Spain has a massive reservoir of potential migrant workers (Latin Americans) who already speak the language and so will basically become integrated and productive citizens on Day One if they can get work permits. Completely the opposite to most other European countries, which either speak unique languages or which historically didn't try to educate or integrate their colonial subjects. (Yes, there were A TON of abuses within the Spanish empire, but historically they were a lot more enlightened on things like ancestry and skin color than the British or French.) This large population of potential well-integrated Spaniards puts Spain at a huge advantage over other European nations, where few non-EU citizens speak the language and/or those that do were historically demonized by racist colonizers.

This is already beginning to lift Spain into the top tier of EU players. Where other rich countries are violently reacting against even legal immigrants, Spain is regularizing hundreds of thousands of mainly Latin American migrants who often came on work visas. That will only be strengthened if the US remains repulsive to Hispanic communities, including American citizens and legal permanent residents. Significant parts of Latin America still have near-replacement level or even above-replacement level fertility, including the Andes and parts of Central America, meaning that Spain's fertility problem isn't nearly as urgent as it looks. And this may be controversial, but I'd imagine that the diverse facial features among Spanish-speaking peoples would make it easier to integrate migrants in general if they can pass for Dominican or Cuban or Venezuelan or Peruvian. This contrasts with the UK or France or the Netherlands, where there historically has been a much sharper color line within their linguistic spheres due to segregation.

Renewables and energy: Spain has a separate utility grid from most of the EU and an abundance of sunlight. As long as it takes basic measures to prevent a repeat of the recent power outage, Spain is well positioned for the energy tradition. It also has a lot of walkable cities and a pretty good train network, even if there have been a couple safety lapses.

Excess land: Although cost of living is really high in the megacities, Spain paradoxically has a ton of rural and small town areas that already have roads and infrastructure but have been bleeding population for decades. Properly mandating or pushing for remote and hybrid work could fix Spain's cost of living problem tomorrow if the government has the cojones to do it. And yes, agglomeration economies are important for continued growth in tech in particular…but does Spain really need more poor-quality GDP growth coming from tech bros? Or could it be better served by revitalizing places like Soria with hybrid and remote workers? There are big chunks of "empty Spain" within two hours' train ride from central Madrid and Barcelona that could easily be filled up with hybrid commuters, basically solving the country's housing problem with the stroke of a pen.