Spaniards protest wage cut plans

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=126747§ionid=351020605



Thousands of people in Spain have protested against the government's new austerity measures aimed at rescuing the country's fragile economy.

Over 15,000 Spaniards took to the streets of Madrid on Sunday, demanding a national strike against Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's deficit-reduction plan.

The demonstration comes a day before the May 17-19 summit of EU, Latin American and Caribbean leaders in the Spanish capital.

It also follows the General Union of Workers' (Union General de Trabajadores) call for a public sector general strike in early June.

Zapatero's spending cuts are expected to save about 15 billion Euros ($19bn) in two years.

They are also aimed at reducing the current 11.2% deficit of the gross domestic product to 3% in 2013.

To reach that goal, Spanish people must tolerate a 5% cut in public sector salaries, a partial freeze on pensions and the scrapping of a 2,500-euro payout to parents for the birth of children.

Unions and non-governmental organizations, which had organized the rally, however, believe that the new plans threaten the rights of workers and pensioners.

They also say that in order to rein in Spain's huge budget deficit, the government must overhaul the country's current economic system.

"We want an alternative (plan) and the transformation of the system. This crisis is a deep crisis of the system, deep and damaging, dramatic, as everyone understands," said a union member, Julio Cesar Sanz Polo.

Also on Sunday, a new poll revealed that Spain's conservative opposition has more than doubled its lead over the ruling party, since Zapatero imposed the new austerity measures.

According to the Spanish media, the wage cut measure was the first since General Francisco Franco's dictatorship ended in 1975.