Sawt Falasteen - 250,000 rally in Madrid demanding state pension guarantees

The rally comes amid a political row over the sustainability of Spain's pension scheme and the cost of living, with Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez accusing the right of planning to weaken inflation-linked increases.

Demonstrators walked peacefully from Atocha train station to the Gran Via, the Spanish capital's prime shopping avenue, watched by intrigued tourists.

Madrid authorities told AFP there were around 250,000 demonstrators, several of whom carried banners saying "protect and guarantee our pensions".

Juan Fernandez, a 38-year-old civil servant in the southern city of Seville, said he was "unsure" he would get his future pension and was opposed to any drive to privatise the system.

"The value of any privatised chunk would be linked to the stock market price. There would be winners -- and losers," he told AFP.

Earlier this month, Ester Munoz, an MP from the right-wing opposition Popular Party (PP) predicted the current pension system would "collapse" and called for it to be changed, prompting criticism from the government.

"Pensions should be sacrosanct," Pilar, who is 64 and close to retirement, told AFP, declining to give her surname.

She condemned "the tendency to privatise everything" and said she was glad to see other protests in recent weeks over housing costs and a lack of protection for tenants.

"I think the housing crisis has woken young people up," she said.

She urged the Spanish public to "defend everything we've worked for -- not just pensions, but public services like health and education too".

PP leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo said on Monday his party would continue to raise pensions in line with inflation every year if it won the November 29 election and he became prime minister.

Sanchez has accused the PP of questioning the mechanism linking pension increases to inflation, in force since 2022, because it voted against the legislation introducing the measure.

Around 6.8 million Spaniards receive a state pension.

As of September, the average amount was 1,576 euros ($1,765) a month, according to the social security ministry.

E.AbuRizq--SF-PST