Thousands join protests over cuts in Spain

Tens of thousands of people across Spain protested against education and healthcare spending cuts yesterday as the country slid into its second recession in three years.

Unemployment is at a eurozone high of 24.4 per cent, more than half of Spaniards under 25 are jobless and Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s conservative government has introduced stinging austerity measures in its first five months in office.

Speaking at a party rally, Mr Rajoy, who on Friday announced a new set of tax rises to come into effect next year, said he had “no alternative”.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

He added: “Spain needs deep structural change, not make-up.”

Protesters in north-eastern Barcelona, northern Bilbao, eastern Valencia and many other regional capitals carried banners urging Mr Rajoy not to “mess around with health and education”.

Cayo Lara, of the United Left party, said at a large gathering in Madrid that many protesters believed the government was intent on using the financial crisis as an excuse to sell off essential public services to the private sector.

Ruth Colomo, a 39-year-old teacher, said the country’s public education system and national health service had been built up over decades with Spaniards’ tax contributions.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“They are ours and I think we have the right to fight for them,” she said.

Mechanic Evaristo Villar, 62, said he hoped Mr Rajoy would listen to the protesters’ concerns. “The government will hear us. I don’t know, though, if it will pay any attention.”

Last week, it emerged Spain’s unemployment rose to 24.4 per cent in the first quarter compared with 22.9 per cent in the fourth quarter.

The bleak employment news came a day after ratings agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded the country’s debt.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The Spanish economy is in recession for the second time in three years as the damage from a housing bust persists. Repossessions are rising, Spain’s banks are in worse financial shape and the government’s deficit is hitting worrisome levels.

The first-quarter employment data showed that 365,900 people lost their jobs, bringing the number of unemployed Spaniards to 5.6 million. The unemployment rate for people under 25 climbed to 52 per cent, up from 48.5 per cent in the previous quarter.

“The figures are terrible for everyone and terrible for the government,” foreign minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said. “Spain is in a crisis of enormous magnitude.”

The figures were another blow to the government after Standard & Poor’s became the first of the three leading credit rating agencies to strip Spain of an A rating.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

It cited a worsening budget deficit, worries over the banking system, and poor economic prospects for its decision to reduce the rating by two notches from A to BBB+.

S&P warned a further downgrade was possible as it left its outlook assessment on Spain at “negative”.

Spain, the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy, is just now just three notches above junk status.

Last week, the Bank of Spain confirmed that the country had entered a technical recession – two consecutive quarters of negative growth.