A deep recession that has led to soaring unemployment and austerity cuts has failed to spark popular anger in Spain, where the unions are reluctant to put pressure on the government, analysts say.
Although May Day rallies drew tens of thousands of people protesting the crisis, they were not on a scale or intensity that could alarm the government.
Certainly, they were nothing like the violent demonstrations that erupted in debt-ridden Greece on Saturday.
“The [Spanish] trade unions have been quiet for the past several years, and now it’s difficult to get the engines started,” said Cayo Laro, the secretary general of the United Left coalition.
Spain suddenly found itself in recession in late 2008 after several years of strong economic growth based on its booming property sector.
Since then, possible motives for public anger have grown steadily.
Official data on Friday showed that the jobless rate had soared to more than 20 percent, double the eurozone average; the government this year launched an austerity plan to rein in the public deficit that includes tax rises; labor reforms are being studied and the government plans to raise the legal retirement age.
Unlike in Greece and Portugal, two eurozone countries also under pressure over their public deficits, reaction on the streets has been relatively subdued.
“There have not been any really unpopular measures taken for the moment,” said Gayle Allard, an economist at the IE business school in Madrid.
Unlike Athens and Lisbon, the socialist government of Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has thus far shied away from freezing salaries.
In addition, “the system of unemployment benefits is much more generous” than in other countries,” sociologist Fermin Bouza said.
“Perhaps when the benefits run out, we are going to see something,” Allard said.
However, there are deeper reasons for the popular apathy.
For one thing, the unions do not want to step up popular pressure on the government.
“They think hard before sending people onto the streets,” Bouza said.
For Allard, it’s because they are “very politicized,” close to the socialist government, subsidized and “not very representative.”
“Spain is a country of small and medium-sized businesses where it is much more difficult to have union representation,” said Cristina Bermejo, secretary general of the youth wing of the CCOO union.
Another factor is family solidarity.
“The family is very strong here, each member helps others” when they are in financial trouble, Allard said.
The underground economy is also extensive, and a large number of the 4.6 million people who are officially unemployed are not in fact jobless, both Bouza and Allard said.
Allard estimated that almost 1.4 million of them work in the underground economy.
However, unions put the government on notice at Saturday’s May Day rally that things could change.
“We don’t know what imposing a restrictive budget for the year 2011 will mean,” UGT leader Candido Mendez said. “If that means reducing the guarantees for unemployment benefits, we will have a major labour conflict.”
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese