The gathering, described by the platform as "key," marks the start of a campaign to defend the public pension system against threats of cuts and covert privatization. The immediate goal is to present a motion to the Girona City Council, which they intend to replicate in other local councils and subsequently transfer to the Catalan Parliament, the Congress of Deputies, and the Senate.
The central focus of the initiative is demanding effective compliance with Law 21/2021, of December 28, which mandates a public audit of the Social Security accounts. Pensioners argue that this audit continues to be implemented without transparency, while an alarmist narrative about the system's supposed unsustainability is maintained.
Without an audit there is no truth, and without truth there is no social justice.
The assembly also addressed a broad package of historical demands. Among them, they insisted on the need to constitutionally safeguard the annual revaluation of pensions according to the real CPI, the equalization of the minimum pension with the Minimum Interprofessional Wage, and the elimination of the gender gap. Furthermore, they rejected the expansion of corporate pension plans, viewing them as a mechanism that favors privatization.
Beyond economic issues, attendees explicitly condemned the genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza and showed outright rejection of the United States' proposal for NATO countries to increase military spending up to 5% of GDP. They denounced that billions are allocated to armament while social sacrifices are demanded from the citizenry.
The assembly, held on Thursday, was attended by the City Council's Councilor for the Elderly, Gemma Martínez, and representatives of the UGT from the Girona regions. The platform has announced that it will actively join the joint mobilizations called by the Marea Pensionista and the State Coordinator for the Defense of the Public Pension System (COESPE) during the coming month.
