In Spain, the civil service attracts crowds: “Why would I go into the private sector?”
In contrast to the dismantling of the state that has begun in Argentina and the United States, Spain is rapidly opening civil service positions, snapped up by candidates of all ages seeking better salaries and a sense of purpose. The conservative daily El Mundo took the pulse of this enthusiasm at a competitive exam preparation center.
We stepped through the door with a thousand precautions, as if we were about to defuse a ticking time bomb. A monastic silence reigned. We were on the second floor of the Leon XIII Residence in Madrid, a center opened in 2012 to support hundreds of women, young and old, in preparing for their competitive exams and postgraduate studies.
Just a few meters away is the Pie-XI residence, its male equivalent, established over sixty years ago with the same objective. There is a third, co-ed center, Saint-Albert-le-Grand, but years ago, in the main building, the girls and boys decided to separate to optimize their concentration.
Around 200 students prepare here for the A1 subgroup exams, the highest-level, most difficult, and also the ones that command the highest salaries. This is where we find the future notaries, mortgage registrars, lawyers [representing the interests of the state], judges and prosecutors of the coming decades, management controllers and state auditors...
This is where Blanca lives. This 24-year-old Mallorcan woman aspires to become a tax inspector. Her room is cluttered with papers,
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