1. Today, in Spain and in Europe, there is no more serious fact than the provoked and progressive deterioration that is taking place in the welfare state or in the European social model. The scandal in the Andalusian health system over the lack of screening for possible breast cancer among thousands of women; the excessive waiting lists due to the lack of material and human resources in the entire public health sector; the shortage of healthcare personnel and the precariousness of their working conditions; The proven phenomenon that in some autonomous communities – especially in Madrid – the privatization of education advances, swamping the finances of public universities, while private centers emerge like mushrooms, are some examples of how the social rights included in our Constitution are deteriorating.
On the other hand, we read and listen to the disturbing statements of right-wing politicians who question women’s essential right to voluntary termination of pregnancy, or the no less fundamental right to decent housing, opposing state intervention and/or regulation in the matter. All this with the aim of encouraging the advancement of privatizations and paving the way for the succulent business that is done with the “derivations” and “concertations” in favor of private interests at the expense of the public treasury. This phenomenon begins to be present in the EU as a whole when the leaders of Germany, France and other countries openly declare that the European social model is unsustainable, agreeing to dedicate 5% of GDP to rearmament. When in reality what is unbearable is the degree of inequality we have achieved and how multinationals and billionaires are not paying according to their wealth and income.
2. Because what does welfare or social state mean? In my opinion it is the fundamental nucleus of European democracies, the great leap in civilization that occurred after the Second World War and which the right wants to close by all means. This content of social rights, non-existent in other latitudes, was assumed by our Constitution of 1978, once democracy was achieved, when in art. 1 states that “Spain is constituted as a social and democratic state of law, which upholds freedom, justice, equality and political pluralism as the highest values of its legal system”. That is to say, in addition to guaranteeing civil liberties, social rights are recognized which, if eroded, democracy itself is also corroded. Now, as a consequence of the construction of Autonomous Spain, the essential elements of this welfare state fall to the autonomous communities – healthcare, education, etc. -.
This is a stand-alone model, which worked more or less reasonably until a few years ago. The problems arose as a consequence of a double phenomenon that put the aforementioned model in crisis. On the one hand, the great calamities that have struck the suffering Spain – economic crises, epidemics, floods, volcanic eruptions, fires – have revealed that the CC AA are unable to deal with them, especially in the face of the incompetence, negligence, lack of foresight and shamelessness demonstrated in some cases and, above all, by the Valencian Generalitat in the face of the damage that has devastated said territory. Catastrophes that I fear will be repeated in the future and which will require the intervention of a more powerful State – what would have happened without the Military Emergency Unit! – and better cooperation, clearly federal, between the institutions involved. However, the most disastrous thing is the evolution of the right which governs the majority of the CCAA and which does not believe in the welfare state, in terms that guarantee excellent public services and not a sort of “charity” for the needy.
The truth is that in communities governed by the right there is a shortage of media dedicated to the public, caused by insufficient investment in these social services due to the obsession of conservative parties with lowering taxes. And it is quite clear that, if public services are not excellent, the tendency towards private services will increase, especially for those who can afford it. And what is the root of this question? The answer is very simple: the social and economic sectors that are hegemonic in right-wing parties do not want to shoulder the taxes necessary to maintain high-level public services. The proof is that the only clear and supported proposal of the right-wing program is to lower taxes, because apparently we live in a “fiscal hell”, when our tax burden is several points below the European average. I don’t know if the staff knows that to enjoy public services as God wants, the level of state collection must be around 40% of the gross domestic product, obviously administered with probity and efficiency.
The sad thing about this case is not only that most citizens are harmed by the deterioration of social services, but also that it is a harmful way to reduce the real wages of all workers. Because, as is known, the standard of living does not only depend on the direct or received salary, but also on the indirect one, in the form of benefits and services used for free: healthcare, education and others. What is the point of workers increasing their salaries by 2% or 3% – which undoubtedly needs to be achieved – if they then have to take out private insurance, which costs them more, to avoid unbearable waiting lists, or having to take on “extra” expenses for their children’s education, not to mention rental income. The enigmatic thing is that the Government claims to have transferred to the autonomous communities the enormous sum of 300,000 million euros more than in the past and it would be interesting to know what such succulent funds have been dedicated to, or have they been given to the CCAA so that they can do with what they want? telenguendengues.
3. Now that there is so much talk about the protection of rights, there would be nothing more urgent than guaranteeing some of those that make up the welfare state, transforming them from merely declarative rights to fundamental rights such as health, housing or pensions, as is already happening with a part of education. It would be a memorable contribution to ensure that our welfare state is not dismantled by those who do not believe in it, since it gives the impression that the Government does not have the tools to prevent such democratic destruction. Without forgetting, a highly harmful “side” effect is that this deterioration of social services, while pushing the vote towards the far right – as it links it to the alleged abuses of immigrants – ends up pushing the political system towards increasing forms of authoritarianism. Sometimes they call them “illiberal”, other times “authoritarian democracies”, that is, states with a minimum in the provision of public services and a maximum in repressive interventions, essentially dictatorial forms. Possible remedy: expand democracy in all directions.
