Spain held elections a few weeks ago and the biggest conservative party got overwhelming results winning almost all the municipalities. Spanish voters expected a change in local governments but they were not expecting a victory of almost 90% of all city councils and regional parliaments. Spain is blue now and it will remain blue for a long time. This fact has some direct consequences that affect citizens’ everyday life. The first one is the privatization of public services. The Conservative Party’s hunger for privatizing public services has been a trendy topic within the political agendas of the Party’s leaders. But privatizing what and how? my reflection on the topic has something to do with what is ours as spaniards.

When someone attempts to make the public sector more efficient, the proposition always scares me. The public sector is ours, we pay -through whatever form of tax-for its existence. Making it more efficient brings debate about the question of efficiency and the question of  public. Is the public sector meant to be efficient or effective? My understanding of things tell me that public never goes well with efficiency. When politicians try to make the public health sector more efficient, for example, they desire to make it more marketable, open it up to the account of private companies, and start the dirty game of competition while putting aside the risks of such a game (leaving the unprotected alone). That’s what privatization means for conservatives; attacking key sectors in a society such as health and/or education. In Spain, conservatives like it hardcore and Roman Catholic (the picture talks by itself).