SPAIN: Spaniards head to the polls in neighbourhood with Madrid's highest unemployment rate, in a country where an average of one person out of five, of working age, is jobless

Record ID: 327629

  • Title: SPAIN: Spaniards head to the polls in neighbourhood with Madrid's highest unemployment rate, in a country where an average of one person out of five, of working age, is jobless
  • Date: 21st November 2011
  • Summary: MADRID, SPAIN (NOVEMBER 20, 2011) (REUTERS) TOWER BLOCKS AND CARS IN PARKING LOT PEOPLE WALKING IN STREET SATELLITE DISHES ATTACHED TO EXTERIOR OF BUILDING AND CLOTHES HANGING ON LINES RIPPED POSTER OF SOCIALIST LEADER ALFREDO PEREZ RUBALCABA PEOPLE WALKING PAST BUILDING MAN LOOKING OUT FROM WINDOW MORE OF PEOPLE WALKING IN STREET EXTERIOR OF POLLING STATION WITH BOARD READING (Spanish): "POLLING STATION" BALLOT PAPER BEING COLLECTED BALLOT PAPER VARIOUS OF BALLOT PAPER MARIA TIMON SANZ CASTING HER VOTE (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) MARIA TIMON SANZ, 73 YEAR-OLD PENSIONER AND LIFE-TIME RESIDENT OF SAN CRISTOBAL, SAYING: "This is a working class neighbourhood, I would expect people to vote for somebody who defends the workers, but I don't know what will happen." PERSON VOTING BALLOT PAPER DROPPING INTO BALLOT BOX
  • Embargoed: 6th December 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Spain, Spain
  • Country: Spain
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVADMB2M5R4VN36XWAQVA4NYHEKH
  • Story Text: Mariano Rajoy and his People's Party (PP) were set to win a landslide in Spain's parliamentary poll on Sunday (November 20), as the Socialists came under fire for a persistent economic crisis that has saddled Spain with the European Union's highest unemployment rate and painful austerity measures.
    In San Cristobal, nearly a quarter of voters are out of work. At 22.25 percent, it has Madrid's highest unemployment rate.
    "This is a working class neighbourhood, I would expect people to vote for somebody who defends the workers, but I don't know what will happen," said life-time San Cristobal resident Maria Timon Sanz, a 73 year-old pensioner.
    For unemployed telecommunications engineer Naiara Escudero, as the financial crisis has rumbled on, the picture has only worsened in San Cristobal.
    "It is very obvious, there are a lot more people out of work, empty apartments due to eviction, many businesses closed down - bars and life time shops - and also a lot of foreigners returning to their countries because they couldn't find work," she said.
    "The economic situation is very bad, Europe is doing badly. I think they should create work, said Andres Miguel Medel Grimaldi, a local green-grocer.
    If Mariano Rajoy's centre-right People's Party wins Sunday's vote, he will have a tough job ahead of him.
    Economic woes have pushed the country's unemployment rate to 22 percent, the highest in the European Union, and the country is expected to head back into recession next year.
    Financial markets are looking to Rajoy for swift action to prevent Spain being sucked deeper into the euro zone debt crisis.
    On Thursday (November 17) the country had to pay 6.98 percent interest to buyers of a 10-year bond, just shy of the 7 percent mark, seen as untenable.
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