Olivia Hiriak
Staff Writer
The Spanish government approved an emergency relief package that provides around 850,000 households with a minimum income guarantee to lessen the economic blow caused by the coronavirus blockade. The poverty alleviation package, which will cost Spain around €3 billion or $3.3 billion annually, enables eligible households to receive between €62 and €1015 a month, or about $515 to $1,130 a year, which will be crucial for families if the country’s economy is expected to go into recession.
Aid has been accelerated by the left coalition government, but is in line with the poverty reduction plans outlined by the government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who committed to redistribute the tax burden when he took office in January. Iglesias leads the United We Can party, which is Sanchez’s coalition partner and is pushing for taxes for the rich to cover the high cost of Covid-19. The Bank of Spain recently predicted that the Spanish economy could shrink by up to 13 percent by 2020.
The lines in the main food banks and social assistance centers in Spain have been accumulating since mid-March when Spain was closed. Raúl Flores, technical director of the Foessa Foundation, which is part of the aid organization Cáritas, told the New York Times that almost six million of the 47 million people living in Spain left “with a tightrope walk”. The minimum income guarantee is the first such system at national level in Spain, where most of the welfare programs have been managed by regional administrations.
The program will be implemented next month and, according to the government, is expected to reach around 2.3 million people. The beneficiaries must be younger than 65, the age at which the Spaniards stop paying the pension system, and their eligibility is determined on the basis of recent tax returns and other assets. The daily cases in Israel are increasing and are calling for the possible reinstallation of a blockade.
