A coalition of 150 Spanish civil society organisations and unions have begun collecting signatures for a referendum on the brutal austerity programme of the Popular Party government of Mariano Rajoy.
The complete mismatch between the right wing Government’s programme and the manifesto it won the elections with last November is an underlining theme of the referendum campaign.
‘You cannot go into elections with one programme and govern with another,’ argues the Social Summit that groups the organisations promoting this campaign.
The platform has received the backing of leading intellectuals and personalities from the world of culture.
Writers like Almudena Grandes, Ramiro Pinilla, and Fanny Rubio, and historians such as Julio Aróstegui and Ángel Bahamonde and Rosa María Capel are part of a commission to promote and oversee the campaign. Key supporters also include political scientist Vincente Navarro, former rector of the Complutense University of Madrid Carlos Berzosa and journalist and TV presenter Máximo Pradera
The campaigners say democracy has been ‘hijacked’ by the markets. A referendum on the cuts would ‘restore dignity’ to a country where the people had lost the ability to decide with their vote and in the context of ‘deterioration’ in labour rights and welfare.
Signatures will be collected in workplaces, hospitals, schools and in streets and squares across Spain as well as online.
El Publico ; Nueva Tribuna
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