Opposition leader classes general strike in Spain as “a failure”

O president of the Popular Party (PP) and opposition leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, argued that the general strike held today in Spain “was a failure”, stressing that it was a “election strike” against the opposition.

“ With all due respect, the success of the strike, at least in the public services that I observed, in health and education, was, of course, a failure”, stressed in an interview with the program El Hormiguero from Antena Station 3.

The candidate for government leadership insisted that the strike was “an act of disguised electoral campaign” by the unions.

The leader of the PP added that it is essential to rely on trade unions to defend workers exclusively, not political parties, especially at a time when the election campaign is about to begin.

Feijóo recalled that he had asked the unions to cancel the strike, a reinforced request after the railway accident in Urda (Toledo), but was not met, classifying the attitude as “a historical error of the unions”.

Tens of thousands of people joined demonstrations held today in various cities of Spain, on a general strike day called by the country’s trade union centers to claim “house and decent wages”.

The demonstrations were convened to more than 50 Spanish cities and in the two largest cities, Madrid and Barcelona, there were 120 thousand and 55,000 people, respectively, according to the security forces and local authorities.

Already the Association Union of Inquiries, which called the demonstrations with the trade unions, said that at the Madrid march there were 400,000 people.

Dozens of protesters in cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, Basque Country or Valencia have been arrested for riots and contempt in the margins of demonstrations on a general strike day, and there have also been clashes with security forces.

This was the first general strike in 14 years in Spain and took place in the early parliamentary elections of 29 November.

The strike was already called after the early national elections by the Prime Minister, the Socialist Pedro Sánchez, were announced, and the trade unions themselves qualify it as “atypical”.

The call for the strike and the demonstrations by the two major Spanish trade unions (CCOO and UGT) responded to an appeal from the associations gathered in the Confederation of Inquiries Unions, which defend the right to housing.

Right-wing opposition parties and business associations criticized the call for an electoral strike, which they considered to have a “clear political component” and appear to target the opposition more than the left-wing government.

The left-wing national government defended the right to strike and the ministers today had an empty agenda.