Over the last decade, corruption cases in Spain have increased significantly. Spaniards regard corruption as the fourth main worrisome issue and 93 percent consider public administration to be corrupt.
The map to the right shows the location of the ongoing corruption cases by cities; while the map below it indicates corruption cases in the Canary Islands. There are currently 390 open corruption cases.
We can see from both maps that to a large extent the cases focus in three areas:
- The centre of Spain. Specifically in the Madrid autonomous community.
- Alongside the Mediterranean Coast, from Huelva to Castellon.
- The North Coast; many of them in Galicia and the Basque Country.
Also, we can see that there is a link between public fraud and population density. Those areas with large populations tend to have more corruption; and, the richer the area, the larger its population. Consequently, there are more politicians and businessmen.
Looking at both maps below, it is obvious that there is less fraud in sparsely populated areas, affirming the apparent link between the economic development of an area and its level of corruption.
Many cities and regions experienced strong economic development during the Spanish property bubble from 1998 to 2008. The construction industry propelled Spain´s economy, making up to 8 percent of GDP in 2007 (it was only 4.7 percent in 1997). Prices per square meter soared from 1,000 euros ($1300) to around €2700 ($3500) in those ten years. In 1998, a standard 100m2 (1,076.39104 ft²) house cost 100,000 euros ($131,000). The same house increased to double its price by 2004 (200,000 euros or 262,000 dollars), and almost tripled it by 2008 (approximately 270,000 euros or $355,000).
Thus, a large portion of the malfeasance cases that appear on the maps are somehow linked to businessmen, construction companies, or real estate developers. In many cases, they bribed politicians at a local or regional level in order to obtain favorable contracts, rezone neighborhoods and other areas, and build properties in "green areas" (Land that should have been used to create parks or public spaces to foster the common welfare instead of real estate) among other tricks. Therefore some politicians obviously obtained their influential positions to make dirty money.
Corruption grew alarmingly in the coastal populations. During the property bubble years, a large number of new buildings were built in the coastal areas. The tourism industry is very important to the Spanish economy, providing 11 percent of GDP. The coastal cities encouraged construction in order to make their cities attractive to tourists. Consequently, they invested in bricks: new hotels, new harbors, amusement parks, new properties, golf courses, refurbished sea promenades, and so on. Therefore there was a stream of money going up and down through the town halls, tempting public workers to commit fraud. And eventually some of them fell to the temptation.
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