The Hidden Social Unrest in Spain: Examining the Impact of Rising Prices, Profits, and Corruption

Almost all analysts point out that Spanish politics has once again plunged into the mud, anger and tension, generating dangerous citizen disaffection.

But the roots of a social unrest that emerges from below are often hidden. That of a majority that has been impoverished by the rise in prices or mortgages, and contemplates how while banks or electricity companies present a new profit record year after year… Or learns that in the hardest moments of the pandemic some used that suffering to profit.

When evaluating the Portuguese elections, which ended with the fall of the socialist government and an advance of the extreme right, a journalist like Enric Juliana drew one of the keys that allow us to understand what is happening in Spain: “the Koldo bill can be high. Higher than that of the amnesty. People who earn low salaries and have to pay high rents are not up for any more disappointment.”

Behind the corrupt plot already known as the “Koldo case”, or the scandal linked to Ayuso’s partner, are millionaire commissions obtained thanks to speculating on the need for products such as masks, vital during the pandemic.

An illegal robbery, marked by the ignominy of trafficking in suffering, which joins the “legal robbery”, that carried out by the disproportionate and unjustified increase in the price of basic products and services, such as food and electricity, or the wild increase of mortgages and loans.

These days two of the “kingpins” of the big Spanish banks have spoken.

Ana Patricia Botín has declared that “in 2023 we have achieved a record result.” They obtained more than 11,000 million benefits. To add that she is “convinced that 2024 will be an even better year.”

The discomfort of an impoverished majority due to rising prices or mortgages

While José Antonio Goirigolzarri, president of Caixabank, sees “necessary and urgent adjustment of public accounts to reduce debt.” That is, more cuts.

The large Spanish banks today almost triple the profits they obtained before the pandemic. A record obtained thanks to the plundering of the rise in interest rates, which forces an SME to triple the interest to be paid, or forces a family to pay an average of 3,600 euros more per year for their mortgage.

Pedro Sánchez has just declared that the Spanish economy “is going in the right direction.” Showing as proof that “we grow five times faster than the eurozone and create four out of every ten jobs in Europe.”

But these “macroeconomic” data hide the reality of the majority of the population.

In the few months of 2024, half of the workers, around 12 million, have once again lost purchasing power.

According to the OECD, compared to the average increase in household income in its members of 22% since 2007, Spain is one of the three countries where it has decreased. We are poorer than 17 years ago.

There is only one way to end the robbery we suffer: Redistribute Wealth

And the Living Conditions Survey certifies the increase in 2023 in the population at risk of poverty and social exclusion.

This is the reality that most of Spanish society experiences in different forms.

And what is announced is that these problems are going to increase.

To comply with the new demands for debt and deficit reduction, the central government has just ruled that the autonomies must carry out an adjustment of 13,000 million euros this year. Most of the spending on health or education is concentrated in the regional budgets.

The new fiscal rules imposed by the EU force us under the banner of limiting debt to cuts worth 15 billion annually. Which are already being applied, and which will presumably be greater next year.

They impoverish the majority of us so that a minority, banks and monopolies of the Ibex-35 or large foreign capital, can continue presenting record profits.

Almost all the focus is on the anger and mud between the political elites. But there is a deeper, and justified, discomfort. That of those who earn “lower salaries” and must face “higher rents.”

Responding to this unrest is the main national issue, and must be the focus in the next European elections.

And there is only one way: Redistribute Wealth. Limit the benefits of banks, monopolies and foreign capital and their ability to plunder, in order to stop the robbery they impose on us and allocate those resources for the benefit of the majority.

2024-04-01 10:35:53
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