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4 commit suicide in Spain over evictions as EU struggles with unemployment

Published time: February 14, 2013 08:38
Edited time: February 14, 2013 13:31
Anti-eviction activists from the Mortgage Victims' Platform (PAH) protest outside parliament during a vote to consider a people's legislative initiative for a new mortgage law, in Madrid, February 12, 2013 (Reuters / Javier Barbancho)

A 46-year-old man has killed himself in Alicante, Spain, over the threat of being evicted from his house. It was the fourth case this week in Spain of a suicide committed over an eviction.

­The tenant, a transporter by profession, hanged himself, local press reported. He allegedly had not paid rent for the last five years. Police arrived to evict the tenant and found his body, after calling several times and receiving no response.

A friend of the deceased told Spanish news agency Europa Press that "people who knew him expected him to do so," as the man “had warned many times” he would commit suicide if evicted. The man had two daughters and came from Barcelona, where his family currently lives.

It was the fourth such case of eviction-related suicide in Spain this week alone.

On Tuesday, a retired couple took their lives by taking an overdose of prescription drugs in their apartment on the island of Majorca, AP reported. The 68-year-old man and the 67-year-old woman left a note saying they were going to lose their home due to debt. The couple’s son found their bodies.

And at the beginning of the week, a 56-year-old man committed suicide in the town of Basauri Vizcaya because he couldn’t pay his mortgage.
The Spanish parliament has agreed to debate the country’s harsh eviction laws, though it has so far resisted adopting new legislation on the issue.

Currently, hundreds of thousands of Spanish citizens are behind on their mortgage payments due to the country’s ongoing economic crisis. A petition has been launched by Spanish activists calling for the protection of homeowners unable to pay through changes to the existing eviction legislation.

Protesters gathered outside parliament on Tuesday evening, shouting slogans such as “It’s not eviction, it’s murder.”

With recession gripping the EU, unemployment in member-states has soared. In December 2012, Eurostat reported that almost 2 million more people lost their jobs, compared with December 2011. The overall unemployment rate for EU member-states currently stands at 11.7 percent.

One major aspect of the eurozone crisis is massive youth joblessness, which stands at 24 percent in the EU. On February 15, the bloc’s Council for Education, Youth, Culture and Sport is set to discuss the issue in Brussels.

DATE IMPORTED:February 12, 2013Anti-eviction activists from the Mortgage Victims′ Platform (PAH) protest outside parliament during a vote to consider a people′s legislative initiative for a new mortgage law, in Madrid, February 12, 2013 (Reuters / Javier Barbancho)
DATE IMPORTED:February 12, 2013Anti-eviction activists from the Mortgage Victims' Platform (PAH) protest outside parliament during a vote to consider a people's legislative initiative for a new mortgage law, in Madrid, February 12, 2013 (Reuters / Javier Barbancho)
Anti-eviction activists from the Mortgage Victims′ Platform (PAH) protest outside parliament during a vote to consider a people′s legislative initiative for a new mortgage law, in Madrid, February 12, 2013 (Reuters / Javier Barbancho)
Anti-eviction activists from the Mortgage Victims' Platform (PAH) protest outside parliament during a vote to consider a people's legislative initiative for a new mortgage law, in Madrid, February 12, 2013 (Reuters / Javier Barbancho)
Anti-eviction activists protest in front of Popular Party′s office in Barcelona, February 12, 2013 (Reuters / Albert Gea)
Anti-eviction activists protest in front of Popular Party's office in Barcelona, February 12, 2013 (Reuters / Albert Gea)
Anti-eviction activists protest in front of Popular Party′s office in Barcelona, February 12, 2013 (Reuters / Albert Gea)
Anti-eviction activists protest in front of Popular Party's office in Barcelona, February 12, 2013 (Reuters / Albert Gea)

Comments (9)

Pre Apocalypse (unregistered) 14.02.2013 21:19

The "Banker Conspiracy" is a lot like the Titanic's Maiden Voyage.

Forci ng a Populist Revolt in Every Country they have dealings in, is Inevitable, so it would seem.

+1

Undo

Kermit Frazier (unregistered) 14.02.2013 20:18

If this is the only Vote you have left, use it wisely!!!

0

Undo

Ayatollah JJ (unregistered) 14.02.2013 11:45

This is what the real purpose of the EU is to impoverish everybody, to steal
their homes to give them to the people with more money.
   In the USA they are doing the same thing, the USA is turning from a nation
of people that used to own their own homes, to people that mostly rent and
have to pay much more than if they owned.
   In New York City, thanks to the greedy politicians that take pay offs from
the Landlords the rents over the past, 30 to years have gone through the
ceiling, pushing a lot of poor and old people into the street, and they see
their apartments rented for 10 or 20 times more, in NYC a landlord
can drag a person into court anytime they want and if they lose, they can
drag them back into court the next day again.  So one way or another they
take that persons apartment, by wearing them down.
   Yes this is all about stealing your home so the rich can buy it and rent
it back to you for a lot higher price.
    This is cruel in the USA cause it has traditionally been a country where
the "American Dream" was to own your own home, a few more years
and the shift is complete from a nation of home owners to a nation of
renters.
   I'm going to give it to you straight.  The rich in the EU and USA started
making less money, since the economies of those countries started to dive
and the money went to Asia.
   So rather than make less money, they came up with a plan to make the
same money as before, by squeezing it out of the poor, making them much
more poor, and making many homeless.
   So dump the Dollar, The Euro, lock up the International Bankers, finally
regulate Wall Street, stop their making tons of money on "Futures" for food
which drives the price to eat way up, making many more starve in thir
world while these Wall Street guys drive around in fancy cars and live in
fancy houses.
   All this corruption has to stop, or you will all be living on the street in
cardboard boxes and if you have a job you'll be saying "You want Fries
With That?" in your Mcdonalds uniform.
  Smash the EU now it was just a trick to make everyone poor and to make
the rich even richer by stealing everything you have, even your home.
   And lock up the Politicians, they knew what this whole EU thing was
about from the start but got paid by the International Bankers to suppoort
it.

+2

Undo

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