MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

EU parliament president warns economic crisis could spark “social explosion”

Tens of thousands of Spaniards have taken to the streets to protest

European Parliament president Martin Schulz warned this weekend that Spain's economic crisis could spark a “social explosion” across the continent.

“The demonstrations in Spain show that a social explosion is looming because of the high unemployment rate among young people in Europe,” Schulz told the wide-circulation German daily Bild in an interview published on Saturday.

He called for the rapid implementation of “new European programs to finally create more jobs for this generation.”

The Social Democrat said however that Spain was better placed than Greece to weather the crisis, since it “has a solid industrial base and a well-organised public administration.”

The Spanish government said on Friday that the recession will drag on through 2013 and raised its unemployment forecast for this year to 24.6% at a time when the country is facing panic on the markets and unprecedented social discontent.

Hundreds of thousands of Spaniards took to the streets on Thursday to vent frustration over a government that seems to have no more room for manoeuvre to turn the economy around.

Spain's massive bank bailout, which could reach 100 billion Euros and was formally approved Friday by the Euro zone, did not seem to calm the markets over the country's financial outlook.