Summary

Spain, the fourth largest economy in the European Union, has enjoyed consistent growth since its economic crisis, with unemployment falling, wages increasing and exports growing. However, the benefits of the recovery have primarily flowed to the better-off, while people in poverty have been largely failed by policymakers.

The result is a persistence of deep widespread poverty, high unemployment, chronic youth unemployment, a housing crisis of stunning proportions, largely inadequate social protection arrangements, a segregated and increasingly anachronistic education system, tax and expenditure policies that provide far more benefits to the wealthy than the poor and a bureaucratic mentality that allows the authorities to shirk responsibility and values formalistic procedures over the well-being of people. It is abundantly clear that the system for providing social assistance is broken, underfunded, impossible to navigate and not reaching the people who need it most.

The formation of a new Government presents an opportunity for change. With its embrace of social rights and fiscal justice, and prioritization of the living conditions of the most vulnerable, its message is a welcome one. But actions must live up to the rhetoric. Spain needs innovative leadership at the national level, backed by resources to encourage autonomous communities to support far-reaching structural reforms.