To reduce the money they have to pay, they live in the dark, without heating, or shower just once a week -- victims like millions in Spain of energy poverty.
Welfare associations have for years warned against this situation, but the death earlier this month of 81-year-old Rosa in a fire caused by a candle she used for light has brought the issue firmly to the fore.
Socialist lawmaker Pilar Lucio asked the ruling conservative government to immediately implement a "winter truce" on companies cutting power to those who cannot pay - a measure with majority support in parliament and encouraged in a 2009 EU directive.
Last year, according to Spain's National Statistics Institute, 10.6 percent of Spaniards were unable to properly heat their homes - or more than four million people - compared to just 5.9 percent in 2008, when an economic crisis kicked off. Full story...
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Welfare associations have for years warned against this situation, but the death earlier this month of 81-year-old Rosa in a fire caused by a candle she used for light has brought the issue firmly to the fore.
Socialist lawmaker Pilar Lucio asked the ruling conservative government to immediately implement a "winter truce" on companies cutting power to those who cannot pay - a measure with majority support in parliament and encouraged in a 2009 EU directive.
Last year, according to Spain's National Statistics Institute, 10.6 percent of Spaniards were unable to properly heat their homes - or more than four million people - compared to just 5.9 percent in 2008, when an economic crisis kicked off. Full story...
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