Administrative sanctions in Spain: Towards a dictatorship of bureaucrats?

There are people who believe that democracy simply consists of people being able to vote for their representatives every four years.

Leftist statism, an effective disguise for being authoritarian and avoiding reproaches
The left that wants to jump over the wall to East Berlin and sail on a raft to Cuba

Signs of degradation of a democracy

Obviously, free elections are a defining characteristic of democracy, but not the only one. Democracy also includes limited political power, respect for fundamental rights (especially the rights of the minority over the ruling majority), the separation of powers, legal certainty, and the right to defense against sanctions imposed by the political authorities, among other elements.

To know the level of degradation of a democracy, it is enough to review how many of these characteristics are deteriorated, reviewing, for example, if the limits to the exercise of political power are clear and effective, if Justice is truly independent, if fundamental rights are respected, if we are threatened by arbitrary actions and if we have a real right to defend ourselves against them.

In Spain, 1.2 million administrative sanctions were imposed in 2023.

Unfortunately, in Spain there are alarming indicators that our democracy is increasingly degraded. The current leftist government of Pedro Sánchez has seriously deteriorated the rule of law with its attacks on justice, its measures violating fundamental rights (such as its "gag plan" against the free media, imitating measures of Putin's dictatorship) and the colossal act of corruption of granting criminal privileges to its allies.

Furthermore, there is a sign of democratic deterioration that is not widely reported in the media but should be cause for alarm: the abundance of administrative sanctions in Spain. To discuss this issue, it is enough to review what professionals in this field say. Daniel Álvaro's law firm in Madrid notes on this matter:

"Administrative sanctions are very common in Spain. According to official data, 1.2 million sanctioning proceedings were filed in 2023, 60% of which were for minor infractions. The average fine imposed was 350 euros, which represents a significant economic impact for offenders."

A situation of helplessness in which the government is both judge and accuser

This law firm reminds us that administrative sanctions are unilateral, meaning they are imposed by the public administration without the need for judicial intervention. This may seem like a source of relief to many Spaniards, as being immersed in a judicial process is a very unpleasant prospect for many, but in a trial you have certain guarantees of defense that do not exist in an administrative sanctioning process, in which the government is both judge and accuser and there is no lawyer to assist you, unless you decide to appeal the sanction in court, something that few do because the cost of the judicial process could be greater than that of the sanction.

In May, British law firm Amsterdam & Partners denounced that the Spanish Tax Agency violates fundamental taxpayer rights, noting that "victims typically face unexpected tax demands with substantial penalties. They are pressured to pay immediately or accept a settlement". At the end of June, that law firm announced a complaint to the UN and the OECD to demand that its member countries not share tax information with Spain until the violations of the rule of law committed by the Treasury are corrected. But this is just the tip of a huge iceberg.

A problem multiplied by 17 in Spain

Due to the so-called State of Autonomies, Spain is divided into 17 de facto states with a wealth of legislative diarrhea that covers every possible area of citizens' lives. Thus, in addition to the sanctions imposed by the Treasury, there are also sanctions imposed by the regional governments for a wide variety of reasons, often for issues that are difficult for citizens to understand, because the enormous amount of legislation makes knowing all the things that constitute grounds for infractions an impossible task.

This situation already generates, in itself, a great defenselessness among the Spanish people, but to that we must add another factor that is related to one of the most deep-rooted evils in Spanish politics: corruption, a problem that extends to different levels of the administration, often perverting the meaning of the different regulations in force and opening the door to personal or political revenge, from which it is not easy to defend yourself unless you have significant personal assets or the backing of a relevant organization, two elements that many Spaniards lack.

In 2022, 1,329,865 pages were published in official gazettes throughout Spain

In this way, a hyper-regulated society is being generated (remember that in addition to national and regional regulations, municipal regulations must also be added) with levels typical of an authoritarian regime. Two years ago, the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (CEOE) denounced that in 2022, 1,329,865 pages were published in official gazettes throughout Spain, with 849 new state-level regulations. "This makes 2022 the sixth year with the highest production of regulations since the high figures reached during the first decade of the beginning of the democratic period (1977 - 1986), and the third highest in the last 10 years," the CEOE denounced.

Legislative diarrhea like this seriously burdens the Spanish economy, causing legal uncertainty for investors, discouraging those who create wealth and jobs, and generating more unemployment and poverty, something that doesn't seem to worry the coalition government of socialists and communists in the least. Furthermore, this colossal legislative volume threatens the rights of the Spanish people and degrades our democracy, effectively turning it into a dictatorship of bureaucrats, a political caste dedicated to ever-increasing the regulatory volume in Spain and leaving more and more doors open to all kinds of abuses.

The most painful thing is that this isn't just due to the left. In some autonomous communities, the Popular Party is proving to be as fond of regulatory excesses as the socialists, turning administrative sanctions into a problem for more and more citizens. Examples such as Galicia and Andalusia are proof of this.

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Image: Grok.