Human Wrongs Watch
By Pepe Canales, Madrid, 27 October 2012 – Yet another bad day for Spain. On Friday 26 October, while ministers of the ruling conservative political bloc Partido Popular (Popular Party!) were once more trying to inject a new dose of fake, forced optimism, two official reports came to ruin their day, and this of millions of citizens.
Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajo | Wikipedia Commons
On the one hand, the nationalised bank, Bankia, hit new record losses with 7,053 billion euro (some 8,5 billion USD), the largest hole in the history of Spanish financial system.
Bankia was chaired until recently by former International Monetary Funds chief and outstanding Popular Party politician, Rodrigo Rato, who was vice-president of Jose Maria Aznar’s right wing government (1996-2004).
Just to give an example of the magnitude of this new collapse, Bankia has lost during three months only– this year’s third quarter, the huge amount of 2.605 million euro.
And government officials fear that Bankia’s losses will amount to up to10,000 million by the end of 2012.
The news has a strong impact on the already ill Spanish economy as Bankia accounts for 46 per cent of the total needs of capital injection of the country’s entire banking sector.
Huge Amounts of Funds Still Needed
Bankia needs a further injection of capital amounting to19,000 million euro.
The Spanish government managed last May to strap a European Union agreement to provide Spanish banking system with a bailout amounting to up to 100 billion euro. Repayment would be endorsed and granted by the State… that’s the taxpayers.
Nevertheless, such bailout has been delayed sine die and certainly not before next year, and anyway under more severe EU conditions.
New Unemployment Record
Meanwhile, unemployment in Spain hit a new record with over 25 per cent for the first time in history, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE) latest data.
The official report also revealed that unemployment exceeds 30 per cent of workers in 16 Spanish provinces, reaching 41 per cent in Ceuta.
The largest job losses occurred in the public sector
More bad news: the arrival of winter season brings with it the worst time to look for a job, as the summer is gone and with it the number of tourists and thus of seasonal jobs.
Massive Protests against “Inhumane” Austerity Policy
Unemployment rate is expected to hit a new historical record soon: six million jobless.
Spanish opposition and trade unions immediately reacted, launching hards critics against the government and its “inhumane” austerity policy.
The Secretary General of trade union CCOO (Comisiones Obreras), Ignacio Fernandez Toxo, called for a general strike on November 14th.
The other big trade union, UGT (Union General de Trabajadores), one of the key organisers of next month’s general strike, demanded a drastic change in government’s policy.
Meanwhile, the Spanish conservative government is expected to adopt more severe austerity measures in the coming weeks.
As a result of all the above, and the drastic cuts introduced by the government on the budgets of health care, education, culture, pension funds, unemployment subsides, social assistance, while increasing taxes on income and value added tax, Spanish streets are daily scenario of massive popular protests, and hundreds of demonstrators have been surrounding the Parliament.
These protests involve students, teachers, physicians, health workers, elderly people, evicted families, civil servants, public transport workers, unemployed… and policemen.
Read also:
Spain: Growing Social Unrest – New Unemployment Record in Rural Areas
Alarm in Global Markets as Fears Grow over Spanish Debt Crisis
Spain: Mass Protests against Most Brutal Cuts Since Dictator Franco
Spain: More Than 8000 Journalists Lose Job Due to Crisis, Political Criteria
Bailout of Spanish Banks Will Further Tighten the Austerity Thumbscrew
Exodus from Spanish Banks: 50 Billion Euro in 18 Months
Spain – Economic and Social Crisis “of Huge Proportions”
The Uneven Fight Between the Banks and the Peoples
“God, It’s Great To Be A Banker!”
EU Bailouts: For The Bankers Not For The Workers
The Untrammeled Dictatorship of the Banks in Europe
European Banks at High Risk — Please Panic!
The Untrammeled Dictatorship of the Banks in Europe
Europe Is Sick, the Whole World to Suffer
Baher Kamal
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 
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