Spanien will massiv sparen
Mariano Rajoy, der spanische Ministerpräsident, will in den nächsten zweieinhalb Jahren 65 Milliarden Euro einsparen. Am Mittwoch kam es zudem in Madrid zu Ausschreitungen und Zusammenstössen mit der Polizei.

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Spain Piles On Austerity Measures
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: MADRID—Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced new austerity measures Wednesday that should help Madrid cut its budget deficit by €65 billion ($80 billion) through to 2015, and warned the euro-zone's fourth-largest economy may not grow at all next year.

In an impassioned address to parliament, Mr. Rajoy called on all Spaniards to back the measures, which include a value-added tax hike to 21% from 18% and cuts to jobless benefits and public sector wages, saying Spain's economic situation is "extraordinarily serious."

The measures were swiftly welcomed by the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union. But analysts said the moves would hurt Spain's recovery from recession and may not save the country from needing a full-fledged financial bailout on top of a plan to support its struggling banks with up to €100 billion in EU loans.

As Mr. Rajoy spoke during a six-hour parliament debate on austerity, hundreds of coal miners and their supporters rallied in Spain's capital against government plans to end subsidies for their sector. Some protesters threw rocks and firecrackers at police, the latest sign of growing social unrest in a country mired in an unprecedented, five-year-long crisis. » | Davíd Roman and Nicholas Winning, with contributions from Ilan Brat and Dan Strumpf | Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Spain Warns Euro 'Finished in Months' without Banking and Fiscal Union
THE GUARDIAN: If EU summit in Brussels fails to show markets euro will be defended at all costs, Spain says currency could be doomed

Spain is warning that Europe's single currency will unravel unless its leaders decide within weeks to centralise budget and tax policies in the eurozone and agree on a strategy to pool responsibility for failing banks.

As Spain's prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, came under mounting international pressure to accept the eurozone's fourth national bailout in two years, the government in Madrid angrily rejected the demands, insisting that it did not need rescuing.

With fears of a euro meltdown having rapidly shifted from Greece to Spain, Rajoy is pleading for a direct eurozone rescue of his country's banks, to avoid the humiliation attached to requesting a national bailout.

Sources close to the Spanish government said its negotiating position was that the fundamental quandary facing the eurozone was not Spain, but a European failure of leadership in persuading the financial markets that the euro would be defended at all costs.

A crucial Brussels summit at the end of the month would have to remedy that by agreeing to establish a eurozone banking and fiscal union, major federalising steps certain to be fought over intensely. Without that commitment, Spanish sources said starkly, the single currency would be finished within months. » | Ian Traynor in Brussels and Nicholas Watt | Wednesday, June 06, 2012