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.
西班牙实现民主已将近40年，而佛朗哥将军(General Franco)令人眼花缭乱的公共管理体系依然存在。在佛朗哥将军执政时期建成、位于马德里市中心的新政府大楼(Nuevos Ministerios)——一座庞大的灰色花岗岩建筑物——在某种意义上象征着西班牙的一成不变：行政部门仍然臃肿不堪，公务员群体仍然受到保护。西班牙财政大臣克里斯托巴尔•蒙特罗(Cristóbal Montoro)本周提交给议会的措施也表明了这一点。他提出的270亿欧元的支出削减和增税计划，构成了自佛朗哥去世以来最严厉的预算方案。然而，蒙特罗是将作为复苏推动因素的研发支出削减了25%，而不是削减政府薪资支出和精简政府机构。公务员薪资只是暂停增长而已。