Tens of thousands of Spaniards marched on Spain's parliament in Madrid on Saturday evening, accompanied by a massive police escort, and closely guarded by officers with dog teams and in full riot gear and many police vans. The march, which was 2.3 kilometers long, was organized by the "Surround Parliament" protest group, as part of the ongoing anti-austerity protests in the country. On arrival at the parliament building, the protesters were met by an even bigger police presence, which pushed them back, using a chain of metal barricades.
70-year-old Alan Pipo told the AP, “And now they are going to give banks a bailout, rescue them as if they were princesses."
"They should be put out on the streets, just like all those families who
are being evicted from their homes because they are unable to keep up
with mortgage payments!" he added.
Paloma
Martinez, 62, said, We can't go on like this. We have a right to a
public health system and quality schools for our kids. We are indignant
and have no fear."
At one stage, the protesters held a minute's silence, with their backs
turned on parliament, showing their condemnation of the Spanish's
government's policies which have caused a quarter of the Spanish people
to become unemployed. They then shouted "resign" with their fists
clenched.
Part of the crowd also protested in front of Bankia bank, where a group
has been camping out since Monday of this week, demanding a halt to the
evictions that have so far affected 400,000 families in Spain
With 25% of the country unemployed, with a staggering 52.34% of the
young unable to find work, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has hiked taxes,
introduced harsh labor reforms and cut spending, as he tries to
persuade investors that his government can manage the crisis without a
full bailout.
Spain's troubled banks have been granted a 100 billion euro ($130 billion) loan facility by the 17 eurozone countries.
However, some researchers say that instead of cutting spending, it might be wiser to increase it.
Jerome Roos, a searcher on the EU debt crisis at the European University Institute in Florence, and founder of ROAR Mag,
told RT, “The alternative is actually not to cut spending, but to
invest in the economy, to invest in growth to make sure that there are
jobs. And the only way to ultimately get out of this debt, is to grow
out of debt and not to cut your way of debt.”
“Clearly things can’t continue the way they are now. Spain would do very
well to heed the lessons that were learned in the past decade from
three other countries - Argentina, Ecuador and Iceland - each of which
defaulted on part of its external debt.”
Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/335665#ixzz2AaQRGtiO
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