More than 1,000 people were out on force on Sunday in support of a demonstration organised in Torrevieja by the Platform for the Defense of Public Pensions of the Vega Baja.
The group were demanding better pensions as they overwhelmingly rejected the rise of 0.25%, which the organizers called “miserly.”
The organisers said that they were overwhelmed by the massive attendance at the march though city streets which ended at the Plaza de la Constitución, where a statement was read out in which protesters demanded a better deal.
During the protest marchers chanted slogans denouncing Mariano Rajoy’s government and the Partido Popular. They also carried banners in which read, “more pension and less corruption”.
One pensioner said the cost of the letter sent by the minister to announce the 2 euro rise to pensions cost more in postage that the rise itself.
The protest was attended, not only by pensioners, but also by many much younger people who wanted to show their solidarity with the group “because we are the pensioners of the future, and it is important that we can retire with a normal pension,” said one.
There were also representatives from the municipal council, with the Socialist Fanny Serrano and the Izquierda Unida councillor, Víctor Ferrández, in attendance, as well as other local politicians such as the mayor of Los Montesinos, the socialist José Manuel Butrón and the PSOE spokesperson in Benejúzar, Miguel López.
In Orihuela, fifty pensioners demonstrated outside the Town Hall, as they have been doing regularly for a number of weeks, to demand “just pensions and that are linked to inflation.” The protesters were joined by the Cambiemos councillor in Orihuela, Karlos Bernabé.
