spain
Protests have been taking place since Sunday all over Spain, blaming politicians, bankers and corruption for the country’s mass unemployment
20.05.11 - 11:57 -
Protesters packed into the Puerta del Sol on Wednesday evening. REUTERS
The word spread fast around the social networks on the web. A lobby group that called itself ‘Democracia Real Ya’ (Real Democracy Now) was calling on everyone who is dissatisfied with the current system and crisis situation to take to the streets and protest on Sunday May 15th. Around 50,000 people took note, according to experts, and flocked to Madrid’s Puerta del Sol, as well as central areas in other cities, including Malaga. The scene has repeated itself every day since then with protesters ‘camping out’, despite prohibitions by electoral boards in some cities .
In what has now become known as the 15-M movement, mainly university students and unemployed young people, but also workers, parents and pensioners have got together to express their general discontent and indignation.
Their peaceful protests are aimed at Spain’s two-party system which they claim “attacks the minorities” and is at the service of the banks which are responsible for the crisis and profiting from it and at political corruption in general.
Protesters stress that theirs is a peaceful and non-political movement and that they will continue their ‘sit-ins’ after Sunday’s election. They are encouraging the general public to show their indignation at the system by boycotting the elections on Sunday. Spain’s main political groups have responded in different ways, wary of a mass movement that they cannot control. The Socialists stress that the public should use their democratic right to vote pointing out that that the abstention of the discontented left would only serve to benefit the conservative Partido Popular.
The left-wing group Izquierda Unida stated that the demands of the protesters were similar to the party’s own proposals and encouraged the demonstrators to make use of their vote to punish the two-party system.
In Malaga protesters claimed that they would remain in the Plaza de la Constitución for as long as they could. They explained that they were not there under any particular ideology and that they rejected violence.
Some people, including former Prime Minister Felipe González, have gone so far as to compare the protests with the North African uprisings.
