Thousands of demonstrators on Saturday hit the streets across Spain protesting the soaring cost of food, electricity and fuel, which have been exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The rallies, which took place in Spain’s main cities, were called by the far-right Vox party, which sought to tap into growing social discontent over the spiraling cost of living that has left many families struggling to pay their bills.
Outside Madrid City Hall, a crowd of several thousand people gathered, waving hundreds of Spanish flags and chanting angry slogans calling for the resignation of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
Photo: AP
“Sanchez, you’re rubbish, bring down our bills,” they shouted, between patriotic cries of “Long live Spain” at a rally demanding government action to lower prices.
“We have the worst possible government... It’s not even a government, it’s a misery factory ... which plunders and extorts workers through abusive taxes,” Vox leader Santiago Abascal told the rally to rousing cheers. “We will not leave the streets until this illegitimate government is expelled.”
This government “is taking everything from us,” said Anabel, a 56-year-old demonstrator who did not give her surname.
“They hike the light and gas prices, and say it’s because of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, but that’s a lie. It was like this before,” she said. “Light prices really affect [my family] because some of us work from home, and we can hardly put the heating on because the price of gas has almost doubled over the past six months.”
Many said that the government should be lowering taxes to help those struggling.
“A country that raises prices in this way and doesn’t help its citizens by partially lowering taxes, is abandoning its people,” said Francisco, 53, who is unemployed and did not give his family name. “We have to force the government to act — or remove them, for Spain’s sake.”
Spain’s main right-wing opposition Popular Party (PP) has also demanded that the government immediately lower taxes.
“Taxes must be lowered at once. We can’t live with prices that are over 7 percent and growing,” incoming PP leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo said on Saturday, referring to Spain’s annual inflation, which jumped to 7.6 percent last month, its highest in 35 years.
Last year, energy prices soared 72 percent in Spain, one of the highest increases within the EU, and costs have surged even higher since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in a crisis that comes hot on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Monday, Spanish lorry drivers declared an open-ended strike over fuel prices that soon mushroomed into multiple roadblocks and protests, triggering supply chain problems.
Rising prices have also prompted the General Union of Workers (UGT) and the Workers’ Commissions (CCOO), Spain’s two biggest unions, to call a national strike on Wednesday.
Spanish Minister of the Presidency, Relations with the Cortes and Democratic Memory Felix Bolanos pledged that the government would unveil its planned steps to reduce the cost of energy and fuel on Tuesday next week, accusing Vox of seeking to profit from a difficult situation.
“The far-right is always stirring up problems and complicating things, no matter how difficult they are... They are not patriots they are troublemakers,” he told Spain’s public television service.
Sanchez is on a European tour to lobby for a common EU response to soaring energy prices.
Madrid has for months urged its European partners to change the mechanism that couples electricity prices to the gas market, but its pleas have so far fallen on deaf ears, despite support from Paris.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday vowed to “accelerate” his libertarian reforms after a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections. The 54-year-old economist has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023. He acknowledged his party’s “clear defeat” by the center-left Peronist movement in the elections to the legislature of Buenos Aires province, the country’s economic powerhouse. A deflated-sounding Milei admitted to unspecified “mistakes” which he vowed to “correct,” but said he would not be swayed “one millimeter” from his reform agenda. “We will deepen and accelerate it,” he
Japan yesterday heralded the coming-of-age of Japanese Prince Hisahito with an elaborate ceremony at the Imperial Palace, where a succession crisis is brewing. The nephew of Japanese Emperor Naruhito, Hisahito received a black silk-and-lacquer crown at the ceremony, which marks the beginning of his royal adult life. “Thank you very much for bestowing the crown today at the coming-of-age ceremony,” Hisahito said. “I will fulfill my duties, being aware of my responsibilities as an adult member of the imperial family.” Although the emperor has a daughter — Princess Aiko — the 23-year-old has been sidelined by the royal family’s male-only
RSS