No party defends the family in Spain, report asserts

Madrid, Spain, Feb 29, 2008 / 15:08 pm

An upcoming report by the Institute for Family Policy in Spain warns that “the two main national parties,” the Popular Party (PP) and the Spanish Socialist Worker Party (PSOE) have ignored the problems of the family and the birth rate in their election campaigns.

“The birth rate will continue to be an unresolved issue during the next legislature, since the two main national parties—the PP and the PSOE—have ignored it in their respective election campaigns,” the report asserts.

The Institute said politicians have failed to address the relationship between the lack of aid for families and the low birth rate, despite the demographic winter Spain is experiencing.

The report indicates that measures taken by the Socialist government have been insufficient, consisting merely in raising the non-taxable, combined income per year from $16,693 to $22,700 per couple.  80% of families in Spain are not affected by such a measure, the Institute says.

“On the other hand, despite the PP’s commitment to raise the amount of public resources dedicated to the family to the same level as the rest of Europe, this commitment has not taken shape in any concrete measure, neither with regards to maternity nor to social assistance per child,” the report states.

The president of the Institute, Eduardo Hertfelder, said the parties need to grasp the urgency of the issue of family assistance in the next legislative session.