Living in Switzerland, I spent a week's holiday in Spain

A complaint from a resident of Switzerland returning to Spain mixes perceptions of noise, dirt and upkeep with a reading of public spending. The contrast he describes has a measurable basis: Spain spends less per capita on urban services than Switzerland, and it shows in the streets.

The story comes from someone who lives in Switzerland and spends a week's holiday in Spain. He comes back and is struck by what once seemed normal to him. It is not an economic report, it is a bar-counter impression, but behind it lies something measurable: public spending per capita and the quality of municipal services.

## Noise, thin walls and living together

The first thing that strikes him is the noise. Paper-thin walls, neighbours on speakerphone video calls, furniture being dragged, motorbikes. In Switzerland, he says, you never see anyone who is not heading to work or home. In Spain, many people wander around with no apparent destination. It is a perception, not a statistic, but it points to something real: the density and acoustic insulation of Spanish housing fall short of Swiss standards. Spain's Código Técnico de la Edificación (the Spanish building code) has required insulation levels since **2006** that in practice remain below what has been built in Switzerland for decades.

## Pavements, damp and upkeep

The second theme is the state of public space. Two drops of rain and it floods, pavements are covered in dog mess, there is a smell of urine, walls are scrawled with graffiti and stained with damp. It is not a neutral description, but it connects with a reality: municipal spending on road maintenance and cleaning in Spain is low compared with northern countries. Spanish town councils devote on average less than **10%** of their budget to cleaning and urban maintenance, according to data from the Federación Española de Municipios y Provincias (the Spanish federation of municipalities and provinces). In Switzerland, the cantons and communes allocate noticeably larger budgets to urban services.

## Who pays for the party

The message ends by pointing at those he calls «funciovagos y jubijetas» (a slur blending civil servants and early retirees), and claims that Spaniards accept the decay as long as they get **20 euros** more a month. It is an opinion, not a fact. What is verifiable: Spain devotes around **40%** of its public spending to social protection, and its tax burden is some **10 points** below Switzerland's. The combination of lower revenue and higher social spending leaves little room for maintaining shared spaces.

The comparison with Switzerland is not entirely fair: there the average salary exceeds **6,000 euros** a month, here it hovers around **2,000**. But the gap in urban services is not explained by income alone. Also by priorities. And that is indeed a political choice, not a matter of fate.