The far-right and extreme right-wing political parties PP and Vox, as well as the Catalan neoliberal bourgeoisie represented by Junts, decided that since their parties were not offered what they had asked for, the nearly 10 million pensioners would have their pensions frozen from February onwards, that is, without increases, and would have to "suffer and endure" the theft that is carried out through increasingly expensive prices (they call it inflation) on basic goods to live with some dignity: housing, food, energy, transportation, health... All pensioners are doubly robbed: first with inflation and second with the deduction of part of their pension, which will now be scarcer to live on.
Millions of pensioners (especially women, with widow's pensions) receive the minimum pension of €825.20, well below the Minimum Wage and absolutely insufficient to live with dignity, either in their home or in a residence, and the decree stated that these pensions would be increased by 9% by 2025, that is, about €50. Their pension would become the "whopping sum of €875" for 14 payments. Well, the miserable and irresponsible members of PP/Vox/Junts, who represent the business community of large corporations in energy, food, housing, and dependency, decided that they can further tighten the screws on those who are most vulnerable and transfer those resources to themselves and their business community.
If we talk about welfare pensions and/or IMV (Minimum Basic Income), the average amounts received do not reach €450, and there are several million between welfare and IMV recipients, who are "robbed of 9%" and made even poorer when they go shopping, pay for energy, rent, etc. It would be a very important step forward for pensioners to include the revaluation of pensions in the Spanish Constitution, as proposed by the Coespe pensioners' coordination, so that the updating of the income of retired people ceases to be a prize disputed by the main political parties.
The misery of politics does not end here, but the farce and mockery are taken to the drama that was played out on Wednesday, January 22nd in Congress: the government (PSOE/SUMAR), the PP, PNV, ERC, Canary Coalition, and UPN, approved the decree reforming the public pension system to allow the retirement age to be voluntarily extended to 72 years, an initiative that is in line with the European demand to increase the average retirement age, disguising as a "voluntary option" what, for many workers, will be a simple necessity. This reform is endorsed by employers' associations and the majority unions.
The approved rule is also discriminatory, since workers with fewer resources or those who have not been able to start contributing in their youth will have more reasons to continue working until the age of 72, receiving a bonus for delaying the retirement age.
The capitalist logic of extracting ever greater resources from the public sector is textbook. As the generations that entered the labor markets in the 90s and later have quite precarious and low salaries, their contributions are largely based on the minimum wage, and they have also suffered high job turnover, they will be forced to retire beyond the age of 67 if they want to "opt" for a "barely sufficient" pension, and also, if they want to opt for a "medium" pension, they will be made to have a Pension Fund with the salaries that are not raised in their payrolls but are put into the "piggy bank of the investment fund in question" and the "theft is perfect": Extraction of public resources through the double route, one stealing in salaries and contributions and the other, shortening the period of collection of public pension, because retiring at 72 years old is very similar to the date of termination of "life."
The omnibus decree repealed by Congress included a battery of aid for households affected by the Dana of Valencia, the volcano of La Palma, and the extension of many of the measures of the so-called 'social shield' for the pandemic and the war in Ukraine: the moratorium on the cutting off of supplies and evictions for vulnerable families that meet a series of conditions; aid to transport or the extended discount for vulnerable families of the electric social bonus.
The working class, the pensioners' movement, and the citizenry in general, must mobilize forcefully against this barbarity, of those who systematically and cruelly apply inhuman policies, making the lives of millions and millions of people more precarious and generating more and more poverty, more inequality, where life is increasingly threatened at the cost of their privileges.
