WUNRN
Sources: EL
Pais | The Inquisiter
Public protests
against the banks grew in intensity Friday, after Amaya
Egaña’s death was reported by the media. Thousands of people
took part in a spontaneous march in Barakaldo, the town where the former
Socialist councilor lived, and over the weekend several bank branch offices
were spray-painted with the word “Murderers.”
In a
two-paragraph press release, Kutxabank chairman Mario Fernández said he had “issued
instructions for the [bank] to immediately suspend all eviction procedures”
until new information emerges on a mortgage legislation reform being hammered
out jointly by the ruling Popular Party and the opposition Socialists.
However, Banco
Popular chairman Ángel Ron warned that a legislative change would end up
“rewarding” defaulters, harm the majority of mortgagees who pay religiously,
and hinder economic recovery. However, he added that his bank only had 17
evictions in the last three years and always reached last-minute deals with
defaulters.
There have been
more than 350,000 evictions in the last four years in a country with extremely
high home ownership levels. With the EU forecasting six million jobless
Spaniards by 2013, growing numbers of people will foreseeably be unable to meet
their mortgage payments.
Fifty-three-year-old
Amaya
Egaña, a former Socialist politician, jumped from her
sixth-story balcony while a legal team waited to foreclose on her home. The
representatives were from La Caixa Bank in
As they entered
the home, the agents found the victim standing on a chair right before she
jumped from the balcony.
Egaña was found
alive, but paramedics were unable to save her. She and her husband had an original
mortgage debt of 164,000 euros ($208,476), but that amount quickly rose to
213,000 euros ($270,765) because of interest payments and other charges. Their
home had been auctioned for 190,000 euros ($241,528).
Amaia Egana's
suicide came 15 days after 53-year-old Jose Luis Domingo hanged himself shortly
before bailiffs came to turn him out of his home in the southern city of
After the latest
suicide, hundreds of people demonstrated on Friday in
With cries of
"Guilty! Guilty!" and "Shame! Shame!" the
A banner reading
"credit scam" could be seen hanging next to Caja
Debt-struck
homeowners have been camping outside Caja
Last month, a
group of top magistrates released a report denouncing the trend of forced
evictions, which they said have risen by a fifth this year and totalled 350,000
between 2008 and 2011.
They complained
of "extremely aggressive judicial procedures against debtors" who
"find themselves defenceless in a crisis that they did not cause."
Rajoy said Friday
he hoped that the talks with the opposition would include discussion of a
"temporary halt to the evictions which are hitting the most vulnerable
families."
He is also
seeking ways to make the banks better apply their code of conduct, to
renegotiate debts and allow people to remain in their homes. "It's a difficult
subject and I hope we will soon be able to give good news to all the Spanish
people," Rajoy said.
The eurozone's
fourth-largest economy,
________________________________________________________________
----- Original Message -----
From: WUNRN
ListServe
To: WUNRN ListServe
Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2012 9:32 AM
Subject: Spain - Evictions from Home - Protests - Women's Pain
WUNRN
SPAIN - EVICTIONS FROM HOMES -
PROTESTS - WOMEN'S PAIN
Oviedo, Spain - Photo - Eloy Alonso/Reuters
A wave of protests against the
eviction of unemployed people from their homes is sweeping across Spain. The
country’s foreclosure process is among the harshest in Europe. When mortgage
debtors cannot make their payments, they are not allowed to hand the keys to
the bank or declare themselves bankrupt. Instead they are evicted but still
liable for the full amount of the loan.......
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