Spain's bureaucracy may not survive Covid

Sancho Panza’s long-cherished ambition was to become a politician. He wanted to be installed as governor of an island; Don Quixote had led him to believe that this was the reward a loyal squire could expect to receive from the knight errant he had served.

Attractive opportunities to move into government increased dramatically for Spain’s latter-day Sanchos after the death of Franco; almost overnight one of Europe’s most centralised nations became a quasi-federal state with 17 autonomous communities. Each of these 17 regions has its own parliament and government and well-paid politicians. The head of the autonomous community of Catalonia, for example, has a salary of €153,000 (£138,500) a year and can look forward to a generous pension. Just the kind of thing Sancho had in mind.

Catalonia and the Basque country had already enjoyed self-rule before Franco’s dictatorship, but as Spain transitioned to democracy it was decided that this time there was to be café para todos (coffee for everybody): the whole country was divided up into regions with devolved governments.