Thousands of Spanish protesters rallied outside of Spain’s parliament building Tuesday, Sept. 25.
Police actively tried to protect the Spanish parliament by placing metal barriers around the building. Protesters who tried to break those barriers were fired at with rubber bullets, hit repeatedly with batons and arrested. Over a dozen protesters were reported injured.
The protests are in response to the government’s economic bailout plan. Pablo Mendez, a protester, explained in a statement, “This is just a powerful signal that we are sending to politicians to let them know that the Spanish bailout is suicide and we don’t agree with it, and we will try to prevent it happening.”
The protest was primarily organized through social media. One of the larger protest groups, Coordinadora #25S, sent out a mass message that read, “Democracy has been kidnapped. On 25 September we are going to save it.”
Because the protest was mainly organized on the Internet, police were aware of it. Over 1,300 armed forces were stationed in the area to keep things under control.
Coordinadora #25S said the protesters never planned to gain access to the building, only march around it.
According to BBC NEWS, Spain is currently in a recession, has decreased property value, increased taxes and one of the highest unemployment rates in the Eurozone.
The Spanish government is planning on releasing a budget for 2013 on Thursday that is supposed to cut government costs and give government lenders confidence in the finances of the country.
Spain is also actively trying to borrow money internationally to keep its country from collapsing. The Eurozone has already made an agreement to lend Spain $100 billion euros, but the Spanish government believes it will need more.
Over the past few years Spain has been importing more than it has been exporting. This caused the wealthy Spanish region of Catalonia to ask to deal with its own fiscal affairs.
Catalonia is not allowed to ask for complete independence from the country. “If Catalonia were . . . we would be among the 50 biggest exporting countries in the world,” Catalonia’s President Artur Mas said in a statement.
