Despite the repeated predictions about the disappearance of the middle classes, they continue to be a very present reality in the societies of developed countries. In truth, much less well-off than in the decades of prosperity that followed the Second World War and until globalization made its devastating effects felt and began to decimate their ranks.
Its resistance to constant economic erosion is based on the fact that a part has until now been engaged in activities partially protected from international competition, such as public service, which ranges from senior positions to teachers or doctors; liberal professions, for example law and similar services; middle management and managers of companies of varying sizes and multinationals and large banks; and commercial sectors.
Another part of the explanation is that belonging to the middle class is also fueled by a subjective feeling, the will to belong to it in order to get on the social elevator that will take its members to a higher economic and social status. That is why it is so difficult to match this majority identification with the middle class with their economic situation or income. It is a range almost impossible to analyze in those terms.
The main unifying feature of the middle class, which to a large extent are many and not just one, is the idea of progress on the social scale, which is also expressed in a conservative or centrist political position.
But the wear and tear has persisted for many years. For the moment, Europe's middle classes have mostly resisted the siren song of far-right conservative populism, the kind that is growing in Germany, France and Italy; also in Spain. Voters for these options continue to be drawn mainly from voters from lower-income economic sectors and relatively low educational levels. Obviously, at the other end of the socioeconomic scale they also get support, but since it is a very small and exclusive sector, with very particular interests, they do not attract, for the moment, the middle classes either.
The traditional right-wing parties continue to have their main sources of social and political support in these middle classes. But it is decreasing. That is why some of them have begun to explore ways to address their discontent by formulating proposals that combine economic aid with the plagiarism of some of the ideas of populism. This is the case, for example, of Emmanuel Macron, the French president, who has announced a plan to improve the living conditions “of those who earn too much to be helped and not enough to live well.” The French leader identifies this broad social sector with the “dead angle”, that area that the State policy does not see and that would nevertheless include a direct political message, to those who “run the country.”
These are bank employees, teachers, civil servants, with gross income above 45,000 euros in France and who have once paid taxes, rent or mortgage, transportation, food expenses and children's education. , barely makes it to the end of the month. No longer regulars at restaurants and special celebrations, the pressure of real estate prices and inflation have flattened their way of life.
In a context, furthermore, in which the degradation of certain social services, especially education and health, pushes them to seek care in the private world, which is more expensive.
And when they try to access some type of public aid, they cannot because their income is above the maximum established by social legislation. And they tend to think that most of the resources go to immigrants and idlers.
In current economic conditions, fueled by rising prices, the strata of the middle class that are barely above the layers that do have access to resources are growing inexorably. Social changes such as the growth of single-parent families aggravate the phenomenon.
Macron is aware of the danger that this situation represents for his political space and that is why he has disclosed his interest in undertaking measures that open the range of public aid to the middle classes. The problem is that France is one of the countries in the European Union with the highest levels of debt and public deficit and the Government has announced that it wants to apply additional spending cuts of 10 billion euros this year. Where will these new measures for the middle classes come from? Of those already destined for the most disadvantaged sectors? It seems evident that Macron is not considering improving education - one of the priority resources for the social advancement to which the middle classes aspire - or public health. If so, he will further increase the vote pool of Marine Le Pen, the far-right member of the National Rally.
What could Macron's project look like? In Spain it has a lot to learn from the Community of Madrid, where it has been running for decades, first with Esperanza Aguirre and now with a turbo engine from the hand of Isabel Díaz Ayuso. It is a model in which the economic and the political come together. It contains both an idea of progress based on individual effort through mainly privatized services and a fiscal policy that would compensate those middle classes for that effort to continue on the social elevator. That combination has worked for the moment, although certainly at the cost of extraordinary social polarization and thanks to the unsupportive usufruct that the state capital makes of the resources of the rest of the country.
