93.8% in Spain Poll Say They Do Not Feel Free

Only 6.2% claim to be free in Spain

"I believe we live worse than under a dictatorship." This diagnosis opens a three-year discussion that resulted in an open, unfiltered poll: 256 negative responses (93.8%) versus 17 affirmative (6.2%). The imbalance makes the question no longer rhetorical. The dominant complaint is not about a tank-heavy tyranny, but a constant drip of rules, obligations, and paperwork eating away at daily life.

What freedom is missing in Spain? The most repeated complaints

First, the wallet. One taxpayer summarizes it with a figure: the State "steals more than half of what I earn." Another puts a price on the symbol of the day: 12 euros for a processed breakfast in a hotel to illustrate that paying does not equate to living better. A third, more technical vein points to legal insecurity: according to a circulating calculation, in Spain one can be fined "half a dozen times a day for anything," and it is more predictable to make a deal with a drug trafficker than to receive a subsidy, because the official bulletin rectifies later, and the administrative subject ends up paying for the defenselessness.

The distribution between those who pay and those who collect the budget

A line underpins much of the anger: the distribution between the private and public sectors. It is argued that those who work and pay taxes — the rowers, in jargon — support a layer of public employment and pensions attributed to living "like kings." The repeated figure is that someone receives between 2,000 and 3,000 euros per month without working. This is a number thrown into the air, without source or breakdown, grouping the contributory pension of someone who contributed for forty years with the stereotype of the freeloader. The label is applied in block. Here, the analysis loses all subtlety.

Is life worse in Spain than in the rest of Europe?

Not everyone buys the narrative. A current defends the exact opposite: "any Joe with a paid-off house and savings is much freer in Spain than anywhere in Europe." The argument is that outside, social leveling mechanisms are more perverse and equality is achieved by limiting individual options. A concrete example is given: above a certain annual income level, one would have no right to a paid parking space, nor to put a roof over the car, nor to buy land. This is signed by someone who emigrated, still pays taxes abroad, and admits the matter would make for a doctoral thesis. The reply comes quickly: comparing oneself to the continent absolves nothing.

China, North Korea, and the game of comparisons

Another, minority and disputed line takes the comparison to the extreme: that in China there is "more freedom than in Spain, at least in daily life." This is a difficult claim to sustain, and the rest of the conversation does not back it up with a single piece of data. The same applies to the use of closed regimes, employed here as an ironic mirror rather than a serious term of comparison.

The antiestéticar of speaking out and of denunciation

The antiestéticar of expressing oneself also appears. Some claim one is not free "even to say what we think" and that one could speak without filters before. Alongside this, a part of the conversation focuses on equality legislation and the antiestéticar that an unproven accusation could ruin someone for life. This is not verifiable data. It is a perception that repeats itself and, by repeating, ends up weighing as much as a fact.

Why does the nostalgia for the period before 2020 repeat?

Much of the discontent looks back. Some claim that "before 2020 there was much more freedom" and describe a youth of spontaneous gatherings and shared snacks that could not be repeated today. Another remembers growing up "doing what we wanted" and takes for granted that this "will never happen again." The evocation has something of a golden myth, but functions as a measuring rod: the present always loses against a memory without rules.

Vaccines, television, and diffuse malaise

Not all discontent takes the form of law. There is also rejection of television as a factory of narratives, the desire to turn off the noise and live on the margins — the greatest freedom is not watching TV — or isolated figures on vaccination percentages stated without context. Part of the malaise is also projected onto immigration, with round figures without backing and without distinguishing situations. This is the segment where fewer data circulate and more labels are distributed.

The scoreboard that does not move

Upon reopening the count, the scoreboard did not improve: 20 versus 264. Almost three years of discussion, and the percentage has barely moved. That is the uncomfortable fact. It is not the anger of a single day.