Bilbao (EFE).- Thousands of people have demonstrated this Saturday in the streets of the capitals of the Basque Country and Navarra, summoned by the Movement of Pensioners of Euskal Herria, to insist on their demand for a minimum pension of 1,080 euros per month.
The pensioners have urged the Government and the political groups in Congress to use the parliamentary process of the pension reform to meet their demands and “immediately establish, in 2023 and with retroactive effect to January”, a “minimum dignity pension”. of 1,080 euros in fourteen payments.
Minimum pension of 1080 euros per month
After the demonstrations that took place this afternoon in Vitoria, San Sebastián and Pamplona, hundreds of pensioners demonstrated this afternoon in the streets of Bilbao, behind a banner saying “no” to the “cutting” of pensions and required that minimum pension.
The pensioners have marched between the Moyua square and the City Hall chanting slogans such as “whoever governs governs, pensions will defend themselves.”
The pensioners’ movement considers that the latest pension reform is not the one that they have been demanding in the streets for 5 years since, although it “incorporates certain improvements”, it is “part of a reform process that is cutting pensions and rights of pensioners”.
“They say that in the last pension reform there were no cuts, but they are perpetuating the cuts of 2011 and 2013,” the spokesperson for the Bizkaia pensioners’ movement, Andrea Uña, said in statements to the media.
“We are reaching a situation that cannot be allowed. Of the 200,000 pensioners in the Basque Autonomous Community, the majority are women, widows, with pensions of 400, 500 or 600 euros. They are perpetuating poverty, misery and abandonment, especially women pensioners”, highlighted Uña.
Recover retirement at 65, another reason for the manifestation of pensioners
The pensioners have also advocated “recovering retirement at age 65”, as well as the 15-year period for calculating the pension, “compared to the 29 that in fact they want to apply”, and eliminating the reduction coefficients for early retirement with 40 years of contributions.
The pensioners have recalled that their next big mobilization is a march that will end on the 25th in Vitoria.
At the demonstration held in Pamplona, the spokesman for the Navarra pensioners’ platform, Benito Uterga, warned that “the minimum pension of 1,080 euros has already fallen short of the cost of living” and has advanced their willingness to start demanding that this be increased to 1,260 euros.