Spain's Pedro Sánchez plots public sector hiring spree before elections

The Spanish President, Pedro Sánchez, has announced plans for a massive increase in civil servant hiring ahead of the country's 28 April general elections.

According to reports in Spanish media, the offering of new civil service jobs will be managed by the General Administration of the State and Madrid's aim is for it to be approved before the end of March or the start of April.

Although the exact number of job offers is still unknown, reports said the number of job offers would be larger than in 2018, which saw over 30,000 new hires.

One report indicated that the main aim of the new hires was to convert temporary civil service posts into permanent ones ahead of the general elections.

If carried out, the hiring spree would come on top of a recently approved 2.25% salary increase for civil servants, together with a 0.50% top-up if certain conditions were met.

That increase was approved despite there being no 2019 general government budget in place.

Sanchez's government had recently also boosted payments on the country's public pensions - which most Spaniards enjoy - while hiking the minimum wage and pushing to revert some of the key aspects of the previous administration's labour market reforms.

The previous government, which was ousted via a no-confidence vote led by Sanchez with the help of the country's nationalist parties and the far-left Podemos, had been planning to ease back on the recent austerity measures adopted in the aftermath of the Great Financial Crisis.

So-called pork-barrel spending ahead of elections has long been a dominant feature of the political landscape around the world.

But the elevated number of public sector workers in Spain, both at the national and regional level, had too often been used to buoy parties' electoral prospects.

There was also concern that Spain's now ruling Socialist Party was going too far in its bid to hold onto the reins of government, potentially weakening the country's hard-won long-term growth potential and squandering its room for manoeuvre in case of another economic downturn.