Pedro Sánchez, the day he is evicted from the Moncloa and leaves the presidency, perhaps not in a very good mood, will leave a diabolical economic inheritance for whoever succeeds him.. The next president of the Government, who, in theory, because it depends on the polls, would be Alberto Núñez Feijóo, will not be able to renounce his inheritance, as thousands of Spaniards do every year. In 2025, 351,446 inheritances were processed, but 55,837 were rejected by their beneficiaries. The fundamental reason is that, in most cases, what they inherited were debts, debts that they had to pay.
The next Government, even if by chance it is headed again by Sánchez, will have to work in a devilish economic scenario. In that case, he would have to manage his own disastrous inheritance. If Núñez Feijóo succeeds him, as seems more likely, everything will be even more difficult for him. Sanchismo will leave a perverse economic legacy on the table, from which it will not be easy to escape and, in any case, will require applying a treatment that is as painful as it is unpopular. Sánchez’s economic testament will include ten enormous black holes, the real depth of which will only be known when the new Government does the math and pulls up the rug. Socialist precedents are scary. Aznar, in 1996, found himself with a 4.2% deficit, 3.5 million unemployed and 300,000 million in debt. Zapatero left Rajoy with a major catastrophe: 10% deficit, plus 5 million unemployed and 750,000 million in debt. Now the big issues will be 1) Soaring public debt; 2) Unsustainable pensions; 3) Employment that is not employment; 4) Loss of purchasing power of citizens; 5) Low competitiveness of the Spanish economy; 6) Rampant public spending; 7) Unbalanced regional financing; 8) Fiscal pressure to the limit; 9) Electricity supply problems and 10) Need for housing.
Traps and debts
The next Government will have to put up with a public debt that will be around 1.8 trillion eurosaccording to the criteria of the European Union, because the real debt will be higher and will exceed two trillion. For interest alone, Spain will have to pay about 60,000 million euros in 2030according to the calculations of Funcas, one of the great economic “think-tanks” in the country. This same year, that bill will reach 43.4 billion and between the new issues and the – expected – increases in interest rates, it will have increased by 50% at the end of the next legislature.
Pension bankruptcy
Social Security (SS) is bankrupt and the pension reform of the Sánchez Government, designed by José Luis Escrivá, has aggravated the situation. Pensions have been indexed by law. That is, they are updated with inflation every year, which deepens the hole. The math is simple: In 2025, Income from contributions was around 180,000 million and system expenses reached 243,000, that is, 63,000 million more that had to be taken out of the State accounts. In addition, the SS carries a debt of another 136,000 million. The pensions are, perhaps, Sánchez’s most diabolical inheritance. Any attempt at adjustment will unleash the anger of more than nine million pensioners, which in practice prevents a real solution for political reasons. A headache for whoever occupies the Moncloa.
Employees without work
The Government on the one hand and the Vice Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz on the other, boast time and again about the creation of employment and record numbers. It is true, never in Spain have there been more people with work and more contributors to Social Security. However, there are doubts about the actual data. On the one hand, there are the so-called “discontinuous permanent workers”, which do not count as unemployed, and which could be up to 800,000 those who have a contract, but no work and who collect unemployment. To them we should add the almost two million employees who, according to the National Institute of Statistics, do not work a single hour a week. The sum of these and the officially unemployed raises that figure to over four million unemployed.
The cost of each month
The January slope is now monthly and repeats monotonously. The Government boasts of GDP, but millions of Spaniards do not receive it in their own accounts. In the Sanchista era it has risen, in nominal terms, 41%, partly thanks to the European Next Generation Funds. GDP, per capita, also nominal, has grown by 31.8%, almost nine points less, but more importantly, while the average salary is 23% higher, inflation has risen 27.2%. That is, there has been a general loss of purchasing power.
Let them compete!
Spain occupies position 39 out of 70 in the world competitiveness ranking and it’s stuck there in recent years. In 2025, the Bank of Spain’s price competitiveness index registered a decrease of 2.8%, the largest since 2008. Productivity per hour worked is between 10 and 15% lower than the European Union average and barely reaches 65% of the German average, despite the current German economic problems. It seems as if the lapidary phrase of Unamuno (1864-1936) “let them invent!” to “let them compete!”
Spending orgy
He Total public spending in 2026 will exceed slightly more than 800 billion euros, according to calculations by the International Monetary Fund. It represents almost 60% more than the 503,000 million in 2018, the year Sánchez came to power. Sanchismo has been an orgy of spending, which has been maintained with more taxes, more debt and European funds and which is unsustainable. The next Government will only have two options: more taxes or adjustments.
The regional sudoku
Pedro Solbes (1942-2023), during his time as Minister of Finance in the Zapatero government, described the problem of regional financing as an “impossible sudoku.” No one has yet managed to solve it, not even Pedro Sánchez, and that is another of the enormous “browns” that he will leave as an inheritance. Your Government’s proposal, in addition to being unfair – it benefits Catalonia and harms almost all the other Autonomous Communities – is perhaps economically unviable.
Fiscal asphyxiation
The sanchismo has made fiscal cheats and has applied a cold tax increase. The method is simple. Tax rates do not adapt to inflation, which means that each increase in income – salary – is taxed more and the State earns more. In theory it is not noticeable, but in practice it is and it is a deception, which is justified with the argument that the tax pressure in Spain is lower than the European average. It is true, but less and less and with many nuances. Work and wealth are taxed the same or more than in the European Union, while indirect taxes are lower. Another complicated issue to straighten out.
No electricity
Another “big blackout” is unlikely, not impossible. The Spanish electricity network has notable shortcomings, due to lack of investments that have often not been made because regulations prevented them from being profitable. Now there are industrial and housing projects paralyzed due to lack of installed electrical power. And available.
The housing drama
The Sánchez governments, pressured by their far-left partners, have applied a housing policy that has led to a national drama. The obstacles to construction and hyper-interventionism have caused a lack of housing and skyrocketing prices, both in sales and rentals, and it will take years for the situation to get back on track.