Spain’s reforms in 2021 were only tiny steps

SPANIARDS EAGERLYEUEU tuned in on December 22nd to watch the annual Christmas lottery, nicknamed (“the fat one”). Punters were hoping for a share of €2.4bn ($2.7bn) in prizes. The European Union, meanwhile, had placed a bet of its own. It hoped Spain’s politicians might go out of their way to win a national jackpot of €70bn, the country’s share of the ’s €750bn covid recovery fund. The grants were conditional on reforms, especially in two worrisome areas: pensions and the jobs market. The government met the ’s deadline of December 31st. Whether its reforms merit the name is another matter.Spain’s government, made up of the Socialists and the far-left Unidas Podemos grouping, entered office in 2019 on a misguided pledge to repeal an earlier reform from 2012. Those changes had made layoffs cheaper and let unions strike wage deals within individual firms, rather than in industry-wide negotiations. This is thought to have aided Spain’s strong recoveries from the euro crisis and the pandemic. The package the government announced on December 23rd stopped short of repeal, but took no great steps forward either.