About 100,000 angry Spaniards took to the streets around the country last Saturday, to protest against increasing austerity measures and what can only be described as grim job prospects.

The country has seen its economy grind to a virtual halt as unemployment soared to an overall 24% of the total population. As the property bubble burst, hundreds of thousands of graduates have also found themselves without any career or prospects. Some regions of Spain has seen youth unemployment levels exceeding 60%, and one in two Spaniards under the age of 25 are out of work.

The country is in recession and people are really struggling to make ends meet. Some of them do not even manage that.

Madrid saw masses of people gather, and at least 20,000 people demonstrated in Barcelona. Marches were also held in Bilbao, Malaga and Seville. Sympathisers held protests in other European cities.

A year ago, the “indignados” pitched tents and occupied town and city squares across Spain for weeks. Demonstrators clashed with police who eventually moved in to evict them. Meanwhile, Greece’s woes continue and the rot is spreading throughout Europe.

In Malta, we have an unemployment rate of about 6%. Yes, we were hit hard when utility tariffs soared, but there are jobs, and they continue to be created. This year, the government also decided to absorb further increments to the utility tariffs. We are also registering growth and the IMF said that our performance has been “impressive”. The whole south of Europe is in recession – Portugal, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Greece and many other nations that do not form part of the EU – yet we continue to tread water and pull away from the pack. The only countries that out performed us are the catch-up economies of Poland, Bulgaria and Romania, which are bound to be on the up, given the disastrous situation they were in before EU accession.

So where does that leave us? It leaves us in a pretty enviable position, given the disastrous state of affairs at large. Does it mean that we are living in the land of milk and honey? Of course it doesn’t. We must continue to work hard to improve our lot and stay ahead of the pack, but it does give us an edge over our fellow club mates.

We reiterate our call for the Opposition to do what it is supposed to do – be a watchdog and safeguard people’s rights when the government does take a wrong turn. In this administration, there have been a fair few faux pas… but in terms of the ecomony, finance and job creation, this government has done well. How on earth we managed to weather the storm is beyond the comprehension of many – but the government had a good hand in it. As soon as the crisis hit in 2008-2009, the government appointed a task force to identify and support those businesses and large scale plants which needed assistance. All the while, it continued to invest in education and job creation. Both the tactics and the strategy were spot on.