Elderly in Catalonia demand dignity in ageing with better care homes

Hundreds of people gathered in several cities in Catalonia on Tuesday in favor of "ageing with dignity" to mark the International Day of Older Persons. 

Around 300 people gathered in front of Barcelona's city council in Plaça Sant Jaume to raise awareness of the "vulnerability" this part of the population suffers.  

The demonstrators protested under the slogan ‘For a dignified aging. We defend our rights!’ and highlighted their potential to contribute to society. 

Josep Carné, the president of the Association of Older People in Catalonia, emphasized that one out of four inhabitants in Catalonia is older than 60: "We cannot live our retirement passively, we have to be more present in public life." 

The Catalan journalist Rosa Maria Calaf read the manifesto for the protest, where she emphasized that older people are not a homogeneous community of people, as they are individuals with their own identity. 

Carné also demanded a more appropriate pension system and pointed out the double discrimination that older women suffer as "there is an extreme difference in the pension they get." 

They also demanded a solution to housing and dependence, as well as a rethinking and better plan for the nursing homes model. 

In Manresa, in central Catalonia, dozens of older people also protested to claim the construction of an elderly care home that was announced in 2019 but is still not in operation.  

Protestors in Manresa also asked for improvements and maintenance in the Font dels Capellans nursing home, the only public one in the city, as cutbacks have affected the assistance people there receive.  

Josep Ramon Mora, spokesperson for the Association of Older People in Manresa, said that "we have to mobilize to claim our rights, because politicians treat us with paternalism, but rarely take any action." 

Manresa is one of the most aged cities in all of Spain, with 20% of its population being older than 65 years old.