Europe Protests Austerity With Strikes in Spain, Italy

Bloomberg: Spanish workers staged a second general strike this year as unions across Europe prepared the biggest coordinated protests yet against budget cuts that policy makers say are needed to end the region’s debt crisis.

In Spain, unions said most auto and metal workers joined the strike, even as power demand was just 13 percent below usual. One of Portugal’s two biggest labor groups also called a strike, partial walkouts are planned in Greece and Italy, and French unions are urging workers to join protest marches.

Opposition to Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s cuts in health, education and welfare benefits is growing while those measures are failing to rein in the budget deficit or bring down borrowing costs. Demands for less austerity are gaining traction as the International Monetary Fundrecommends nations including Spain slow the pace of budget cuts.

“This is a strike against the suicidal economic policies of the government,” Ignacio Fernandez Toxo, head of Spain’s CCOO union, told supporters late yesterday.

Rajoy, who won a landslide election victory a year ago, is wrestling with the second-largest budget deficit in the euro region while trying to revive the economy from a five-year slump that pushed the jobless rate to 26 percent. He is trying to avoid following Portugal, Greece and Ireland into seeking a sovereign bailout as Spaniards resist the measures being implemented as a condition for the 100 billion-euro European bank rescue he agreed to in June.

Bank Outrage

Unions, which staged two general strikes in the decade through 2010, have called as many walkouts since Rajoy took office as they tap into taxpayer anger at shouldering cuts and the cost of rescuing banks at the same time. As outrage also grows over Spaniards losing their homes for failing to keep up with mortgage payments, Rajoy pledged last week to rush through measures to prevent families being evicted.

Even as he enjoys a parliamentary majority, he is seeking the support of the main opposition Socialist party for the changes, and negotiations are set to resume for a third day today. Banks, which are seeing an increase in protest graffiti at branches, have already agreed to a two-year freeze on evictions for “extreme” cases.

Car Production

Between 50 percent and 100 percent of auto workers joined the strike during the night shift and activity halted at nearly all metal works, Spain’s Comisiones Obreras union said in a statement. Police said they arrested 18 people in Madrid after demonstrations overnight. Protesters continued to march today through Madrid, where police increased security around buildings including the city hall and Parliament. Another protest is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. in Madrid.

The day began “without much disturbance,” Cristina Diaz, director general at the Interior Ministry, told reporters in a televised broadcast. Power demand was 13 percent below usual at 9:20 a.m., data from grid operator Red Electrica Corp SA (REE) showed.

In Portugal, where the CGTP labor group called the strike to protest measures include wage and pension cuts, state-owned airline TAP SGPS SA cancelled flights. Lisbon’s metro service was shut and state-owned train operator CP-Comboios de Portugal said most trains won’t run. Italian transportation and shipping will be disrupted throughout the day due to staggered, four-hour walkouts.

reporter on this story: Emma Ross-Thomas in Madrid