Hundreds of pensioners from different regions of Spain, some 5,000 according to the delegation of the Government of Madriddemonstrated this Saturday in the Spanish capital against the “privatization” of pensions and against those who want to do “business” with them.
Besides, They have demanded an increase in salaries and benefits with the real CPI, as well as compliance with the Social Security Audit Law.
Dressed in phosphorescent vests, those attending the march, which started from Plaza de Neptuno and traveled through Plaza de Cibeles until reaching Puerta del Sol, chanted slogans such as “Whoever governs, pensions are defended” and chants against the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz.
They have also carried signs with slogans such as “early retirement without penalty“, “no to company pension plans”, “no more precariousness” or “quality public healthcare”, all of this among a sea of Palestinian flags, republican and autonomous communities such as the Basque Country, Catalonia, Andalusia or Extremadura.
At the head of the protest, organized for the fifth year by eight associations in defense of pensioners, Ramón Franquesa, spokesperson for the State Coordinator for the Defense of the Public Pension System (COESPE), has warned that private funds “try to bankrupt” the system of benefits of the Social security.
“We are not going to allow mechanisms, such as collective agreements, to be used to divert Social Security contributions to private pension funds. If they want to do business, let them do it, but voluntarily with the people, not taking resources from Social Security“, he stressed in statements to the press.
At the same time, Franquesa has claimed end the gender gap in access to benefits, which generates a situation of “structural poverty for three million female pensioners” because the system “does not recognize the particular situation of women in the accumulation of pension rights” and “penalizes them when becomes a widow.”
The spokesperson has requested an audit of the Social Security accounts to end the “false” story that the public system “is not sustainable.” “We have a public system that is solventwhich has more contributors than ever in the past, which could with its income improve the living conditions of ten million pensioners, especially those who earn a pension well below the Minimum Interprofessional Wage (SMI). The audit is not carried out so as not to show that this whole story about the insufficiency of the system is false,” he stated.
For his part, the Secretary of Organization of Podemos, Pablo Fernández, who attended the protest, has supported the claims of those attending the demonstration by demanding “decent pensions” and “a shield in the constitution” for the revaluation of benefits according to the CPI real, as well as rejecting the private system.
“We demand that we move towards the retirement age of 60 years, that the pension not be cut for those who retire early, but who have contributed for more than 40 years, we demand an audit of Social Security to know what is already being allocated what an end. We fear that Social Security is allocating money not to pensions, but to other issues”he added to questions from the press.
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