Palma.Huge protests against crisis pay cuts and tax hikes filled the streets of various Majorcan towns yesterday morning as workers protested in anger branding the crisis measures robbery.
Hands up, this is a robbery! demonstrators shouted outside government buildings and hospitals across Majorca and the Balearics as a whole.
A sustained string of protests have erupted since Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy last week announced the new measures, aiming to save 65 billion euros in order to slash the public deficit.
Among the steps is a cut to the Christmas bonus paid to civil servants, equivalent to a seven-percent reduction in annual pay. This came on top of a pay cut in 2010, which was followed by a salary freeze.
Union leaders in Majorca have been calling on the general public to join the protests because the cuts no longer merely affect workers but society as a whole and anger is rising on the streets.
There is even talk of a general strike this Autumn and further sustained industrial action.
Yesterday, the President of the Balearics, Jose Ramon Bauza, said that he fully understood why people feel the need to protest but stressed that the regional and central governments have had no option but to introduce the cuts in order to reduce the country's deficit and try and crawl out of recession.
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