General Franco’s bewildering tiers of public administration have survived almost 40 years of democracy in Spain. In some ways, the sprawling grey granite Nuevos Ministerios complex in central Madrid, completed in his regime, is a symbol of how little has changed: the civil service is still bloated, and public servants are still a protected species. Measures presented to parliament this week by budget minister Cristóbal Montoro suggest as much. His €27bn of spending cuts and tax increases made up the harshest budget since Franco’s death. Yet instead of cutting the state wage bill and removing layers of government, he cut spending on research and development, a recovery driver, by a quarter. Functionaries’ pay was merely frozen.
西班牙實現民主已將近40年，而佛朗哥將軍(General Franco)令人眼花繚亂的公共管理體系依然存在。在佛朗哥將軍執政時期建成、位於馬德里市中心的新政府大樓(Nuevos Ministerios)——一座龐大的灰色花崗岩建築物——在某種意義上象徵着西班牙的一成不變：行政部門仍然臃腫不堪，公務員羣體仍然受到保護。西班牙財政大臣克里斯托巴爾•蒙特羅(Cristóbal Montoro)本週提交給議會的措施也表明了這一點。他提出的270億歐元的支出削減和增稅計劃，構成了自佛朗哥去世以來最嚴厲的預算方案。然而，蒙特羅是將作爲復甦推動因素的研發支出削減了25%，而不是削減政府薪資支出和精簡政府機構。公務員薪資只是暫停成長而已。