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Thousands demonstrate against higher retirement age in Spain
Feb 23, 2010, 19:10 GMT
Madrid - Thousands of Spaniards on Tuesday marched against the government's plans to raise retirement age from 65 to 67 years.
The protest was intended to urge Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to preserve the country's social security system in the face of the economic crisis.
The trade union confederations UGT and CCOO had called demonstrations in Madrid, Barcelona and half a dozen other large cities.
The government wants to raise retirement age in an attempt to finance future social security in a country with an ageing population.
It is also concerned about Spain's growing budget deficit, which now stands at about 11 per cent.
CCOO leader Ignacio Fernandez Toxo said the planned pension reform 'went in the long direction,' while Zapatero promised to 'listen to' the unions in order to reach a social consensus to back the reform.
The percentage of Spaniards aged over 64 will double to around 30 per cent of the population by 2049, according to the National Statistics Institute.
The demonstrations were the first major ones by trade unions since Zapatero, a Socialist, became prime minister in 2004.
Spain is one of the Western countries most affected by the economic crisis, and is widely expected not to come out of recession before 2011.
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