Vetoes and resistances in the failure of the reform of local tier in Spain

Abstract

Rationalization and Sustainability Law of the local administration from December 27th 2013 was the last legislative attempt to profound impact on the local tier organization in Spain. A law born without consensus which has failed in its objectives. This article aims to clarify the reasons of this failure from a political point of view. According to some authors like Alba and Navarro «the most relevant literature about local governance in Spain comes form Administrative Law scholars, highly oriented to the legal framework, the legal position of the local tier governance and issues related to legal procedures». The law was born out of a necessity imposed by the EU to control the budget of the municipal administration, it was also born without consensus and it failed in its objective of reducing the local tier. This failure is of great interest, because it can be compared to different models within Europe. In the European context there are two main models of local tier reduction: top-to-bottom which main trait is that the law come directly from the Central Legislative Body of Governance and applied to the local level (Denmark, but also Greece) and bottom-to-top which it is based in the voluntariness in achieving the reduction of local entities (Spain). Such a new Law has encounter vetoes and opposition from stakeholders who made impossible its enforcement because of the clashes between the center and the periphery of the Spanish institutional organization, and the veto power possessed by the Regional governance and even the municipalities subject to such law.