Spanish former leaders decline leaving bonuses

More than 60 senior figures from Spain's previous Socialist administration have declined their end-of-term payouts, officials said Saturday, saving cash-strapped Spain nearly five million euros. Out of 85 people who were entitled to the compensation, 64 declined payments, for savings of 4.76 million euros ($5.89 million), the finance ministry said in a statement. Ex-prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero started the practice and most of his former government followed suit. The payouts are for 80 percent of a lawmaker's salary for up to two years. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's Conservative government has since passed laws preventing outgoing high officials from collecting such payments. Recession-choked Spain is trying to slash its public deficit from 8.9 percent of gross domestic product last year to 6.3 percent this year, then down to 4.5 percent in 2013 and 2.8 percent the year after that. It has introduced a swingeing series of austerity measures and plans to save 102 billion euros by 2014. Spain's economic crisis has pushed its unemployment rate to almost 25 percent.