Lacking Courage: Town hall mergers

The Unión Progreso y Democracia (UPyD) is one of those on the face of it sensible political parties that spring up now and then that make you wonder why other political parties are not sensible and are inhabited by politicians who are quite plainly mad, like the Partido Popular. (Oh, and in the interests of fairness, PSOE as well.) Having been assigned a position of centrist by no less than the "Financial Times", the UPyD is meant to have been "wooing disenchanted Spaniards" (so said the FT two years ago). It hasn't done this in any great measure, but then it has only been around for five years while it has discovered, during its short period of existence, that breaking the domination of two-party politics is as difficult in Spain as it is in other countries.

Nevertheless, the UPyD ploughs on, coming up periodically with eminently sensible suggestions which, because they are sensible, will undoubtedly be ignored. Its latest foray into the realms of sensibleness is to suggest that town halls in the Balearics should be merged and that island councils should be done away with. Goodness me, what a suggestion. I can't begin to think where I have heard it before. All due modesty prevents me from hinting that the UPyD might have taken notice of what I have written, but I will for once throw off any immodesty and point out that I have said exactly this on several occasions in the past.

The UPyD has identified, it says, a few euros or so that might be saved through a rationalisation of the system of Balearic public administration that, in its totality, ran to 1,180 million euros between 2008 and 2011. A significant saving of 18,000 million, as an example, could come from mergers of towns with fewer than 20,000 residents, i.e. most of the towns and villages in Mallorca.

One does have to take their word as to these savings, but as the public coffers are so empty, as the cost of operating the various levels of regional government has been identified as a major contributor to the Spanish deficit, and as all manner of international bodies have called for a rethink of regional government as a means of tackling the deficit, you would have to believe that it might have a point.

"Courageous steps" are required, continues the UPyD, in confronting the deficit and the lack of confidence that most of the world has in Spain's ability to truly get to grips with the deficit. While national government faffs around, it seems perverse that it shouldn't take a long hard look at something that is staring it in the face; its own system of public administration. But if national government won't act, then regional government should, which is what the UPyD is suggesting.

The courage to propose let alone effect a merger of town halls and an elimination of the island councils would be one beyond any Balearic politician, such as President Bauzá. Just think about it for a moment. There are all the PP-run town halls with PP mayors and councillors raking in a nice little earner. Start merging town halls and most of these mayors would have to go back to running their bars. And as for the town hall staffs, they would have to hope that the former mayors would be able to find them a job as a barman or waitress. If a PP-led regional government were to insist upon mergers, which would inevitably result in a good deal of job losses, the party would find itself booted out of office next time round. It wouldn't do it because it would lack the courage to do so, knowing it would be electoral suicide.

Local democracy and government in a Mallorcan style, for all their merits, and there are many, have created a monster of jobs for the boys and girls and of inefficiency and duplication that would be enormously difficult to kill off. Yet, in different ways, structures exist or are being mooted, that would make mergers a possibility. There are already the mancomunidades of co-operating municipalities. Tourism, it is being proposed, will be organised through municipality co-operation; in the north of the island a board to oversee police in five towns is to be created.

The courage thing, the lack of courage thing, would stop there being a going of the whole hog to town hall mergers, even if combining smaller municipalities would make sense, as the UPyD knows. In the whole of Spain, its only mayor presides over the "municipality" of Hernansancho in Castilla y León. And its population is? 200.  


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.