Spain considering ban on photographing, filming police on duty

PressTV

Spain is drafting a law that aims to ban photographing, filming or reproducing images of the country’s members of police and state security forces while they are on duty, officials say.
Spain’s Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz said that the government is considering the ban on capturing, playing back and processing of images, sounds or data of Spanish security forces who are “in the exercise of their functions.”
The government's plan which was unveiled on Friday comes amid a crackdown on protests against harsh austerity measures and spending cuts across the debt-wracked country.
    Critics consider the measure as a violation of the freedom of speech in the country, but the Spanish officials insist that it is needed to uphold “dignity of police and security forces.”
The Spanish government has also been sharply criticized over the austerity policies that are hitting the middle and working classes the hardest.
The government has already cut public services and social benefits, while raising taxes which have eaten into people's livelihoods.
Public protests have grown in the country over speculation that the government will seek a Greek-style European bailout to keep its borrowing costs in check.
Over the past few months anti-austerity demonstrations have turned violent in Spanish cities such as Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia, as well as in rural mining locations in the north.
Battered by the global financial downturn, the Spanish economy collapsed into recession in the second half of 2008, destroying millions of jobs.

'This is reality': Spain slashes spending, raises taxes in $79B austerity plan

By msnbc.com staff and news services
MADRID -- Spain announced a 65 billion euro ($79.85 billion) austerity package that includes tax hikes and spending cuts on Wednesday, a day after it won approval from its euro partners for a huge bailout of the country's stricken banks.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy told parliament the country's future was at stake as Spain grapples with recession, a bloated deficit and investor wariness of its sovereign debt. He said the nearly $80 billion in savings will be achieved through 2015 by a hike in sales taxes and a series of spending cuts through 2015.
"We are living in a crucial moment which will determine our future and that of our families, that of our youth, of our welfare state," Rajoy said.
"This is the reality. There is no other and we have to get out of this hole and we have to do it as soon as possible and there is no room for fantasies or off-the cuff improvisations because there is no choice," he added.
Spain's economic crisis turns middle-class families into illegal squatters
Spain's unemployment rate is more than 24 percent overall and 50 percent for young people.
"What motivates us is the five million people out of work," the BBC News quoted Rajoy as saying.
Wednesday's increases in sales tax include a hike to 21 percent on products and services like clothing, cars, cigarettes and telephone services to 21 percent, and increase to 10 percent on goods such as public transport fares, processed foods and bar and hotel services. The sales tax on basic goods like bread, medicine and books stays at four percent.
The increases were widely expected but go against campaign pledges Rajoy made before he was elected in November and since he came to power.
PhotoBlog: Spanish miners converge on Madrid after long march over cuts
Other measures outlined Wednesday included:
    further cuts in government spending beyond the reductions already outlined in the 2012 budget
    wage cuts for civil servants and members of the national parliament
    further closures of state-owned companies
    tax deductions for homeowners to be scrapped
    a 30 percent cut in the number of town councilors
    changes to unemployment benefits designed to encourage jobless people to seek work quickly.
    20 percent cut in government subsidies to political parties and labor unions.

Spain sees worst clashes since austerity imposed (PHOTOS)

Striking coal miners have clashed with police in northern Spain, resulting in at least seven people injured. The workers fired skyrockets and ball-bearings while officers responded with rubber bullets and tear gas.

The miners in Asturias of were protesting the government’s plans to cut by almost two thirds the 300 million-euro subsidies to the industry.

Activists say as many as 4,000 jobs are at risk of disappearing due to the austerity measures.

Protesters were trying to block roads with burning tires, the Interior Ministry said. At least four of those injured were police officers trying to restore the order, while another was journalist, who was hit by a rubber bullet in the chest.

Spain is one of the economies worst hit by the ongoing European crisis, which forced the government to make a number of painful spending cuts. On Saturday, eurozone ministers agreed to lend Madrid up to 100 billion euros to help bail out its struggling banks.

Spanish miners have been on strike all across northern Spain for weeks.

A miner catches a rubber bullet in the air during a clash with Spanish national riot police in the surroundings of the "El Soton" coal mine in El Entrego (Reuters / Eloy Alonso

A coal miner use a slingshot in a clash with Spanish national riot police in the surroundings of the "El Soton" coal mine in El Entrego (Reuters / Eloy Alonso)

Coal miners hide behind shields as they fire a home-made rocket during a clash with Spanish national riot police inside the "El Soton" coal mine in El Entrego (Reuters / Eloy Alonso)

 

Euro zone agrees to lend Spain up to 100 billion euros

BRUSSELS/MADRID (Reuters) - Euro zone finance ministers agreed on Saturday to lend Spain up to 100 billion euros ($125 billion) to shore up its teetering banks and Madrid said it would specify precisely how much it needs once independent audits report in just over a week.

After a 2-1/2-hour conference call of the 17 finance ministers, which several sources described as heated, the Eurogroup and Madrid said the amount of the bailout would be sufficiently large to banish any doubts.

"The loan amount must cover estimated capital requirements with an additional safety margin, estimated as summing up to 100 billion euros in total," a Eurogroup statement said.

Spain said it wanted aid for its banks but would not specify the precise amount until two independent consultancies - Oliver Wyman and Roland Berger - deliver their assessment of the banking sector's capital needs some time before June 21.

"The Spanish government declares its intention to request European financing for the recapitalization of the Spanish banks that need it," Economy Minister Luis de Guindos told a news conference in Madrid.

He said the amounts needed would be manageable, and that the funds requested would amply cover any needs.

A bailout for Spain's banks, beset by bad debts since a property bubble burst, would make it the fourth country to seek assistance since Europe's debt crisis began.

With the rescue of Greece, Ireland, Portugal and now Spain, the EU and IMF have now committed around 500 billion euros to finance European bailouts.

Washington, which is worried the euro zone crisis could drag the U.S. economy down in an election year, welcomed the announcement.

"These are important for the health of Spain's economy and as concrete steps on the path to financial union, which is vital to the resilience of the euro area," Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said.

HEATED DEBATE

Officials said there had been a heated debate over the International Monetary Fund's role in Spain's bank rescue, which Madrid wanted kept to a minimum. It will not provide any of the money.

In the end it was agreed that the IMF would help monitor reforms in Spain's banking sector, while EU institutions would ensure Spain stuck to its broader economic commitments.

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said the euro zone's plan was consistent with the IMF's estimate of the capital needs of Spain's banks and should provide "assurance that the financing needs of Spain's banking system will be fully met."

Sources involved in the talks said there had also been pressure applied on Madrid to make a precise request right away, but Spain had resisted.

Euro zone policymakers are eager to shore up Spain's position before June 17 elections in Greece which could push Athens closer to a euro zone exit and unleash a wave of contagion. Spain's auditors could report back after that date.

Nonetheless, analysts said financial markets may be calmed by the announcement when they reopen on Monday.

"The figure of up to 100 billion is more encouraging and pretty realistic; it's an attempt to cap the problem," said Edmund Shing, European head of equity strategy at Barclays.

"The issue, however, is there is still a lack of detail about where the money's coming from, which is crucial. The market will treat it with some caution until they see how it will be funded."

The Eurogroup said the funds could come from either from the euro zone's temporary rescue fund, the EFSF, or the permanent mechanism, the ESM, which is due to start next month. Finland said that if money came from the EFSF, it would want collateral.

EU sources said there was a preference to channel money to Spain through the ESM, rather than the EFSF. Under the ESM, an approval rate of 90 percent or less is needed to trigger aid, and the fund also has more flexibility in how it operates.

"That's why it's so important that the ESM ... be ratified quickly," German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said.

The Spanish government has already spent 15 billion euros bailing out small regional savings banks that lent recklessly to property developers. Spain's biggest failed bank, Bankia, will cost 23.5 billion euros to rescue and its shareholders have been wiped out.

"Whatever the formula being used, we need to say two things: first the innocent should not suffer for the guilty, second public money should come back to public coffers," said Socialist opposition chief Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba after speaking with Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on Saturday morning.

LIGHT CONDITIONS

The race to resolve the banks' troubles comes after Fitch Ratings cut Madrid's sovereign credit rating by three notches to BBB, highlighting the Spanish banking sector's exposure to bad property loans and to contagion from Greece's debt crisis.

It said the cost to the Spanish state of recapitalizing banks stricken by the bursting of a real estate bubble, recession and mass unemployment could be between 60-100 billion euros ($75-$125 billion).

Italy could yet get dragged in too. Its industry minister, Corrado Passera, said the economic situation in Italy had improved since the end of 2011, but remained critical.

"Europe was more disappointing than we had expected, it was less capable of tackling a relatively minor problem such as Greece," Passera told a conference on Saturday.

While Spain would join Greece, Ireland and Portugal in receiving a European financial rescue, officials said the aid would be focused only on its banking sector, without taking the Spanish state out of credit markets.

That would be crucial to avoid overstraining the euro zone's rescue funds, which would struggle to cover Spanish government borrowing needs for the next three years plus possible additional assistance for Portugal and Ireland.

Conditions in the plan did not appear to add to the austerity measures and structural economic reforms which Rajoy's government has already put in place.

"Since the funds being asked for are to attend to financial sector needs, the conditionality, as agreed in the Eurogroup meeting, will be specifically for the financial sector," de Guindos said.

EU and German officials have cited national pride in the euro zone's fourth largest economy as a barrier to requesting a full assistance program.

The European Commission and Germany both agreed in principle last week that Spain should be given an extra year to bring its budget deficit down below the EU limit of 3 percent of gross domestic product because of a deep recession.

The Eurogroup also said money could be funneled to Spain's FROB bank fund although the government would "retain the full responsibility of the financial assistance".

Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan said the funds would be provided through the EFSF or ESM at the same interest rates which apply to funds provided to other bailout countries.

(Additional reporting by Luke Baker and Justyna Pawlak in Brussels, Erik Kirschbaum, Annika Breitdhardt and Matthias Sobolewski in Berlin, Antonella Ciancio in Italy, Conor Humphries in Dublin and Martin Santa in Bratislava. Writing by Mike Peacock and Fiona Ortiz.)