Protest in Spain

Big day today in Spain as the electorate make their decisions about which mayors they want to run the local municipal councils and who to lead the autonomous regions around the country.

The backdrop to all this has been the peaceful protests of Spain’s youth as well as others who are tired of the government’s policies which they see as ineffective and pandering to the “markets”, bankers etc and also more generally to the ruling elite who, they complain, do not represent their interests:

“I have never voted in my life because I don’t see myself reflected in the politicians, I never felt they listen to us,” says one protester in this report and they see what has happened in other countries recently and want to make a difference.

Unemployment in Spain is now at 21 percent nationally and for under-25s, the rate in February was 44.6 percent. This is more than double the EU average and is still rising. The protest started in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol on May 15, spreading to other cities around the country and the “indignadados” (the indignants) are vowing to stay until at least until May 29. However, with Greece, Ireland and Portugal’s debt problems not going away and some sources believing the only real option, albeit an unpleasant one, is for these countries to “restructure” their debts i.e. default, Spain is in the difficult position where it needs to reduce its government spending even more than it has done already if it wants to maintain credibility in the financial markets from where it borrows.

‘Unless the government wants to run the risk of another episode of financial distress, it will have to implement another austerity package before the next elections,’ said analyst Fernando Fernandez here.

President Zapatero and the government need to be careful and want to avoid any semblance of the political unrest that has spread in other parts of the world recently, particularly as this protest seems so far to be based entirely on a peaceful, non violent platform. I took the short video below yesterday afternoon walking through the protest “camp” in Puerta del Sol and was impressed with the level of organisation – there were volunteers cleaning the streets around the site, others handing out cups of water and there were even creche facilities available!