Eurozone crisis.Protests in Spain

Mass rally
Thousands of miners marched through the centre of Madrid towards the industry ministry to protest against plans to slash coal industry subsidies from 301m euros last year to 111m euros this year.

 

Crowds lined the streets of Madrid to welcome the coal miners

"It's just cuts and more cuts," David Menendez, a miner from Asturias, told the Associated Press news agency. He and his colleagues had been further angered by the latest round of tax increases and spending cuts.
Many of the workers had walked hundreds of miles since 22 June from northern Spain, where demonstrations outside coal mines have resulted in clashes with police.
Unions say the cuts threaten 30,000 jobs and could destroy their industry.
The Spanish government argues that it pays disproportionately high subsidies to a small and unprofitable part of the economy.
Spain's 30bn-euro bank bailout will be the first instalment of a package worth up to 100bn euros agreed in June.
Eurozone ministers must get approval from their own parliaments and hope to make the payment by the end of July.

• Spain in numbers
• Spain is the eurozone's 4th largest economy
• One in four people is unemployed
• House prices have dropped by 25% since 2008
• The banking sector is highly indebted. Bankia, the country's
  fourth largest bank, recently asked for a €19bn bailout
• By 2010, one in four Spaniards were at risk of poverty
  or social exclusion