The rally, organized by Comisiones Obreras and UGT, brought together testimonies such as Marga’s. For her, one of the biggest problems facing older people today concerns pensions. “Low pensions mean that people cannot access many of the things they normally need,” she explained. In the case of women, she added, the situation is worse because “we have generally paid contributions for less time” and pensions are lower.
Marga also denounced the ageism that, in her view, continues to shape the way older people are seen. “Older people are sometimes treated as if we were useless, or demented, or incapable,” she lamented. Against this image, she stressed that they are “generally autonomous, capable of making decisions and exercising sound judgment”.
PENSIONS, HEALTHCARE AND LONG-TERM CARE
Pilar Méndez, secretary of the pensioners’ committees of the Federation of Pensioners, focused the demands on housing, healthcare and long-term care. She warned that for many older people “it is impossible to pay rent” and called for shorter waits for primary care, specialists and operations, more accessible housing and action against unwanted loneliness.
José Luis Romero, secretary general of the UGT Aragón Union of Retired People and Pensioners, conveyed several demands to the public authorities: protect the public pension system, guarantee “decent pensions”, reduce the gender gap and find a solution for early retirements. He also called for shorter waiting lists for long-term care and healthcare, stronger geriatric services and the approval of a specific law on care for older people.
The demonstrators wanted to make it clear that older people “are not a burden” but rather “a historic and economic pillar on which society rests”. For this reason, they said they would not accept “setbacks in our rights or broken promises”, and called on society as a whole to join their mobilizations.
