Thousands of protesters gathered on Madrid’s Sol Square on Sunday, after many had marched for weeks from cities across Spain. They are angry at soaring unemployment – the highest in the Eurozone – and the government’s failure to tackle the recession.
The Spanish media and the protesters themselves are referring to this as the “Spanish revolution.” Today Spain has one of the highest unemployment rates in the Eurozone, and its youth unemployment is the highest in the EU – more than 40 percent of young people do not have a job. It is not that they are not trying to find one, it is just impossible for them to do it.
The movement, which has been called the “15M Movement,” started on May 15 and since then thousands of young Spanish people have been gathering all across the country in order to protest and call on the government to focus more on domestic issues.
A lot of the protesters have literally walked from more than 160 Spanish cities to be in the heart of Madrid, asking the government to bring more jobs and to stop listening to the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization. Their slogan is “Yes, we camp.”
Some participants said they were considering continuing the march to Brussels to keep their protest in the public eye.