Outside the town hall, Antonio stands with a sign, no, with several signs against high taxes and levies.
Against which ones, I ask.
“All of them!”
I am probing further and learn that it’s about something like a property appreciation tax, which he has to pay for now living in the apartment of his mother, who passed away two years ago. And if he won’t pay, the apartment will be taken away from him, he says. He only has a pension of 436 euros a month and can’t afford the payments, he laments.
That’s why he is in front of the town hall every day. For two years already. Except on weekends, when he goes to church.
What happened to the apartment, I inquire anxiously.
“I still live there. I can pay the taxes in installments.”
And to get home, he probably takes the tax-subsidized bus. (Pensioners who earn less than 800 euros a month can use the bus for free.)
As I leave, Antonio calls out “Arriba España!“, a battle cry of the Franco dictatorship. Maybe he isn’t really here for the taxes after all.
Links:
- Soon, I’ll have full articles on Málaga and on Granada. In the meantime, enjoy my other articles from Andalusia.
- All postcards from this series.
- Supporters of this blog actually receive real postcards from my travels. Delivered reliably by tax-funded railroads, mail ships and letter carriers.
The Happy Hermit 
Another person who wants all the “rights” and privileges, but none of the responsibilities.🙄🤦🏼♀️
Especially considering this particular tax, because the increase in property values in cities is usually due to public infrastructure and other public investments, from policing to tourism.
And I always wonder if the people who don’t want to pay taxes would really be better off if they had to pay for the police, the fire department, roads, air traffic control, libraries, the military, parliament, courts, embassies and consulates, water quality inspection, hospitals, scientific research and space exploration out of their own pocket.
Of course there is waste (like in any large organization, whether public or private), but overall, we get a pretty good deal for our money, I think.
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