Protesters in Spain defy government ban

[Tiriol]

As reported by BBC News: Spanish protesters, now numbering some 25,000, defy government and court order to cease their activities on the eve of local elections.

Spain protesters defy ban to remain in Madrid square
21 May 2011 Last updated at 07:50 GMT

Some 25,000 Spanish protesters have defied a government ban and camped out overnight in a square in the capital, Madrid.

The protesters are angry with the government's economic policies and have occupied the area for the past week.

Spain's electoral commission had ordered them to leave ahead of local elections on Sunday.

But as the ban came into effect at midnight, the crowds started cheering and police did not move in.

The protest began six days ago in Madrid's Puerta del Sol as a spontaneous sit-in by young Spaniards frustrated at 45% youth unemployment.

The crowd has grown in the capital and has spread to cities across the country. Hundreds have camped out each night in Madrid.

They are demanding jobs, better living standards, a fairer system of democracy and changes to the Socialist government's austerity plans.

"They want to leave us without public health, without public education, half of our youth is unemployed, they have risen the age of our retirement as well," said protester Natividad Garcia.

"This is an absolute attack on what little state welfare we had."

Protest growing

Another protester said she was taking part because she had no employment prospects despite having a degree.

"This should make the political classes aware that something is not right," said 25-year old Inma Moreno.

Many of the participants have drawn parallels between their actions and the pro-democracy protests in central Cairo that revolutionised Egypt.

Political rallies are banned under Spanish law on the day before elections to allow for a "day of reflection" - a ruling which was upheld by the electoral commission.

Some protesters had said they feared a police crackdown, but Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said the police were "not going to resolve one problem by creating another".

As the midnight deadline to disperse approached, many of the protesters wore tape over their mouths to imply they felt they were being prevented from speaking.

The BBC's Sarah Rainsford, in Madrid, said there was a moment's silence as the ban came into effect, before the square erupted in jeers, cheers and chanting.

Police were on the scene but did not intervene and the outdoor sit-in appears to be growing rather than ending, says our correspondent.

What started as a spontaneous movement now looks like it could be here to stay for some time, she says.

Spain's 21.3% unemployment rate is the highest in the EU - a record 4.9 million are jobless, many of them young people.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has expressed some sympathy for the protesters, noting their "peaceful manner".

"My obligation is to listen, be sensitive, try to give an answer from the government so that we can recover the economy and employment as soon as possible," he told radio Cadena Ser.

However, his Socialist government is expected to fare badly in Sunday's local and regional elections.

I'm not surprised - the unemployment in Spain is huge and it has been so for a long time. The fact that the police failed to enforce the ban on protests would also suggest that policemen are sympathetic to the protesters' cause or at least recognize their grievances. We shall see what will happen.

[wautd]

They are demanding jobs, better living standards, a fairer system of democracy and changes to the Socialist government's austerity plans.

Not to mention the high corruption in the current government. I heared many politicians that are suspicious of corruption are on top of the election lists. Then again, this may be common practice for socialist parties (I'm looking at you, Belgium).

[Big Orange]

Systemic youth unemployment and under-employment in Iberia is a sleeping giant that has now woken up and filled with a terrible resolve. Tick-tock for Britain and America with their own sleeping giants, especially when they're the epicentre of the banking/property bubble and the biggest proponents of "cheap" non-indigenous labour at all costs.

[Murazor]

Not to mention the high corruption in the current government. I heared many politicians that are suspicious of corruption are on top of the election lists. Then again, this may be common practice for socialist parties (I'm looking at you, Belgium).

Corruption is a huge problem for both major parties, the Socialists (in name only) and the People's Party (right wing), and the sad thing is that it would take very indepth law reform to alter the situation. Which isn't gonna happen for as long as they can absolutely help it.

The Spanish parliament is set up in such a way that of the nation-wide parties only the two big ones matter even remotely and if one of the two doesn't win an absolute majority (since Spanish parties are allergic to compromise and coalition govs in the national level), they must secure the support of the regional nationalist parties of Catalonia and the Basque Country who get representation disproportionate to their vote (they usually get around 20 seats out of 350 with 5% of the vote, while the communist-led Izquierda Unida party got 2 seats with a similar amount of votes).

So to get those votes in congress, the major parties have granted all sorts of things to the Basque Country and Catalonia contemplated, well beyond what was originally contemplated in the Constitution of 1975, which has made the other autonomous regions demand equal treatment which has lead to things like the workforce working for the public sector in the regional level going from around 700,000 circa 2002 to around 1,700,000 these days.

[U-95]

Not to mention the high corruption in the current government. I heared many politicians that are suspicious of corruption are on top of the election lists. Then again, this may be common practice for socialist parties (I'm looking at you, Belgium).

Corruption is a huge problem for both major parties, the Socialists (in name only) and the People's Party (right wing), and the sad thing is that it would take very indepth law reform to alter the situation. Which isn't gonna happen for as long as they can absolutely help it.

The Spanish parliament is set up in such a way that of the nation-wide parties only the two big ones matter even remotely and if one of the two doesn't win an absolute majority (since Spanish parties are allergic to compromise and coalition govs in the national level), they must secure the support of the regional nationalist parties of Catalonia and the Basque Country who get representation disproportionate to their vote (they usually get around 20 seats out of 350 with 5% of the vote, while the communist-led Izquierda Unida party got 2 seats with a similar amount of votes).

So to get those votes in congress, the major parties have granted all sorts of things to the Basque Country and Catalonia contemplated, well beyond what was originally contemplated in the Constitution of 1975, which has made the other autonomous regions demand equal treatment which has lead to things like the workforce working for the public sector in the regional level going from around 700,000 circa 2002 to around 1,700,000 these days.

I'm from Spain and what you say is unfortunately quite real. Both major parties are equally corrupt and, worse, not only many people (not all, fortunately) defend the one they vote with the same passion they defend their favored football/soccer team, when both parties, and you very well says, are in the background, the same, but also everything is set up in a way a minoritary party would have quite hard to be present in Congress and/or Senate.
Roughly a month ago, there were autonomous elections -the equivalent of regional elections-. The party in the power -PSOE, the socialists (just in name as you elocuently says)-, of course, got a major splat. The problem is that votes were to the right-wing major party, even when one of their candidates was being investigated by a quite serious case of corruption.

They seem to be pitted one each other; howerver, for certain things that benefit them and their cronies (banks, etc) they're united.