Tens of thousand of people across Spain protested yesterday against the debt-laden government's plan to raise the retirement age in the first major protests by unions since the Socialists came to power in 2004.
The country's two largest unions, the UGT and the CCOO, called the demonstrations in several major cities, including Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia, with further protests planned until March 6 in the rest of the country.
A recent opinion poll published in the newspaper El Pais showed that about 84 per cent of people oppose the plan announced last month by the government of Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to raise the legal retirement age from 65 to 67.
The measure, which is to be introduced in stages over several years, aims to ensure that the social security system remains viable amid a rapidly ageing population.
"I have come to protest against lifting the retirement age to 67 but also in part due to the high level of unemployment," 29-year-old automobile factory worker Miguel Lopez told AFP at the start of the demonstration in Madrid.
Spain's unemployment rate soared to nearly 19 per cent in the fourth quarter, the second highest in the 27-nation European Union after Latvia, and the mounting joblessness has taken its toll on Mr Zapatero's popularity. The Spanish economy, the fifth largest in Europe, has been mired in recession since the end of 2008 as the global financial crisis hastened a correction that was already under way in its once-buoyant property sector.
Many who took part in the demonstration called for a general strike to oppose the government's plans to raise the retirement age as well as other planned reforms.
Mr Zapatero earlier this month also unveiled plans to reform the country's rigid labour market rules in a bid to fight unemployment.
And last month the government announced a programme to save €50 billion over three years in a bid to slash its public deficit by 2013 from an estimated 11.4 per cent of GDP this year to within the three per cent limit set by the EU for eurozone members.
Spain's rising debt burden has also triggered concerns that it could follow in the shaky footsteps of Greece, whose budget crisis prompted the European Union to place it under unprecedented scrutiny. But the secretary general of the OECD, Angel Gurria, stressed that "Greece and Spain are not comparable" even as he said the reforms, in particular the retirement measure, are essential if Spain is to reassure nervous financial markets that it is committed to reviving the economy and slashing the deficit.
"It's not only a question of responsibility, but signals.... Rating agencies are looking at what we (the OECD countries) are doing," he told a news conference in Madrid earlier yesterday.
The Standard & Poor's agency in December lowered its credit rating outlook on Spain to "negative" from "stable", warning that the country faced a "prolonged" period of sluggish economic growth.
The governor of the Bank of Spain, Miguel Angel Fernandez Ordonez, said the retirement measure "will provide a major boost to the financial balance of the public pension system".
Mr Zapatero has said he is seeking a "national consensus" on the issue that would include the unions.