Montoro eases austerity policy

The Minister of Finance, Cristóbal Montoro, has made two recent announcements that seem like political nods to civil servants. With elections just around the corner, could he be relaxing Spain's austerity policy in order to curry favor with voters?

First, he will return two personal vacation days to government workers. Three were taken away as the government tightened its belt. And yesterday we learned that government salaries would jump after three years of stagnation. Yet salary increases will not be major. The government wants to show that its work is finished, yet that is delusional thinking for a country with a 6.6% annual deficit and a national debt that is 100% of its annual GDP.