The reconstruction phase will soon begin, in which we have to be on the ground to prevent damage to one of the social systems that, although perfectible, works best in our country: the pension system.
There is no doubt that Spanish and European bodies are preparing documents with proposals on how to make up for the huge hole that the pandemic is causing in our economy. We have read opinions that speak of freezing and even cutting pensions. This reminds us of what happened in the 2008 crisis in Greece and Portugal, where their pensioners suffered a slash in their incomes, being the sector of the population that suffered the most in both countries.
We are aware that we will all have to make hard financial sacrifices, but as the cohort earia of the over-65s who are lethally suffering the hell of this pandemic, who by order of the Official State Gazette, or by their own responsibility, will continue to be subjected to de facto prolonged confinement. It would be cruel to subject it to a further penalty, this time a financial one.
We are outraged at how public resources are squanderedThe pandemic itself is being managed, as we have already denounced in the case of the centralisation of purchases and the apparent waste that has been produced. Shamelessly, unexplained or dispensable subsidies are given in these extraordinary circumstances, an overburdened public administration is increased with new official positions, foreign aid is given... We demand an immediate clean-up of the superfluous. in all public administrations.
Spanish pensioners will not accept reductions in our pensions until the privileges that some, such as politicians, have in this area, and which we have rejected on many occasions, are thoroughly cleaned up. Organisations representing the elderly are vigilant and have drawn a red line: leave pensions untouched.
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Eduardo Rodríguez Rovira
Honorary President of CEOMA (Spanish Confederation of Organisations for the Elderly)