The problems of Spain’s decentralisation

FOR A DIFFERENT view of the problems of decentralisation, head to Valencia, Spain’s third city and the capital of a region of 5m people. The PP governed the region from 1995 until 2015 and pursued a grandiose dream of turning it into a Spanish Florida. It brought in Formula 1 motor racing and America’s Cup sailing, and invested billions in the City of Arts and Sciences, a controversial complex of fantasy buildings designed by Santiago Calatrava, a local boy who became a famous architect.

Elsewhere in the region, it spent €265m ($310) on film studios in Alicante which were subsequently closed down because they violated European law on public subsidies. In Castellón it spent €150m on an international airport with only a small handful of flights every day. Several of the PP’s regional leaders are in jail for corruption and others face trial.

Ximo Puig, a Socialist who won office as head of a left-wing coalition in 2015, is picking up the pieces. The Valencian community...