La Voz de Galicia – 18 de outubro, 2019 →
They had spent almost a month on pilgrimage. All of them left toward Madrid to make politicians, the media, institutions, and society at large—to make us—listen to them. The old and the not-so-old mobilized throughout the country to demand, among other things, that minimum pensions match minimum wages and that pensions be a fundamental constitutional right…
But they were unlucky. Their arrival in Madrid happened in the same week as the procès sentence condemning to prison nine Catalan pro-independence leaders came out. And even though the media more or less spend some time making their voices heard, the fact is that our fundamental majority (our pensioners), continues not being heard by politicians, by the media, by institutions, by society, by us.
According to the report Envejecimiento en Red published by the Superior Council of Scientific Investigations, or CSIC, in 2018 24% of the Galician population is older than 65. And our demographic balance is negative. And what can we, the retirees of the future, do?
These were two routes full of symbolism, pensioners from more than 280 local platforms organized by COESPE (the State Coordinator for the Defense of the Public Pension System), marched from Bilbao and Rota toward Madrid to remind us that many of them live at poverty’s doorstep and that their situation is not sustainable.
They have spent 92 Mondays protesting. Of what majority are we talking about this week in our media? To what majority are we listening?
It is sad to think that, in the future, my generations will likely not have to worry about organizing a public pensions demonstration because these might not exist in 2050.
