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SPANISH RIOT POLICE beat protesters with batons and hauled some into vans earlier today as thousands rallied near parliament in Madrid to decry biting austerity cuts.
Police wearing helmets charged demonstrators and struck some protesters with batons after they tried to break down metal barriers protecting the lower house, the Congress of Deputies.
The clashes, shown live on national television, broke out in the evening as riot police backed by officers on horseback enforced a perimeter round the parliament building.
Officers surrounded police vans parked in the nearby Plaza de Neptuno square to keep at bay demonstrators who had rallied to vent their anger at the government’s handling of an economic crisis.
“Government, resign,” chanted many of the demonstrators before the violence broke out.
“Fewer police, more education,” cried others.
Many held their hands up in the air and jeered: “Hands up, this is a robbery”, an allusion to their complaint that the poor are paying for the crisis while bankers get bailed out.
The demonstration was organized by the “indignants” a popular movement against what its followers say is a political system that deprives Spaniards of a voice in the crisis.
(Photo: AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)
“They have robbed us of our democracy,” said 53-year-old shopkeeper Soledad Nunes from the northwestern region of Castile and Leon, wearing two red carnations and carrying a sign reading: “Do you really think you can fix this by folding your arms?”
“We have lost our freedom, our welfare system with the cuts to health and education,” she complained. I have two daughters and this year I had to pay a lot more for their studies.”
Nunes said business had slumped at her clothing shop, blaming the conservative Popular Party government’s austerity measures.
Aitor Llorens, a 27-year-old unemployed computer programmer, said the protests should be bigger.
“With everything affecting us we should be 100 times more people here. People are beginning to get resigned to it. They feel they can do nothing, that it does not matter which party is in power,” he said.
“The politicians are only interested in big companies and what the markets want.”
The economic crisis, blamed on the collapse of a speculation-driven real estate boom, has plunged Spain into recession, throwing millions out of work and many families into poverty.
But protesters say government policies, including pay cuts and sales tax rises to rein in the public deficit, hurt the poor unfairly.
They blame the crisis on corruption and financial and European political systems that they brand unjust.
The offering of a loan of up to €100bn by Spain’s eurozone partners to rescue the country’s stricken banks has fanned their anger.
Clashes have broken out on the fringes of several mass protests in Spain over recent months, with police firing rubber bullets and beating demonstrators with batons.
Spanish media reported that 1,300 police officers were deployed for Tuesday’s demonstration.
The “indignados” are also known as “May 15″, the date protests over the handling of the crisis broke out in 2011. That month activists camped for weeks in the central Puerta del Sol square.
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The first casualty of war is innocence. This is turning into a yugoslavian type war. Im concerned that the whole region will be destabilised & Europe will look on with indifference like it did in yugoslavia. Its a desperate situation. The EU with all its power is a toothless entity. The Russians could march to Dunkirk before anything would be done.
Have to agree with you. Probably not Dunkirk but probably Poland
We can sit here and comment on what the reasons are for this conflict and point the finger at world leaders for not doing enough, but the truth is both sides are suffering. Both sides are guilty of atrocities. But the innocent victims are the ones that pay high price and all the big players don’t give a damn
Germany and Europe have a lot to answer for.
They started this war pushing the people to overthrow an elected president.
terrorism sponsored by Europe to antagonise Russia
Bullsh*t. If you think Russia is a beacon of democracy go there on holidays & open your eyes.
I’ve been to Russia.
Democracy ! We don’t have it here in ireland ir Europe.
Europe lead by Germany for big business at the expense of its citizens
Mjhint
Russia is a great place to visit or live, you should try it sometime.
Have you gary me too. I worked there. Its people live in fear & law & order is dished out by thugs & henchmen. Theres a lot wrong with Europe on every level but its utopia compared to Russia. If you are suggesting that Russia is as good as Europe then you must be a member if the Russian mafia. Its a country run by a paranoid sociopathic credulous cretin.
Seriously you do know there is other sources of news than Sky news?
You are correct. Im rarely in one place at any time as im constantly travelling with my job. Its the bbc world service for me & I know a lot of Russian people who tell me what its like in Russia.
I think it’s cute. The Jewish traveller trolls here and the pro putin idiots fall for it :)
Anything anti west I suppose.
You’re right, it’s great place to visit
- (myself, I’ve been in Murmansk, Pertozavodsk & more).
BUT a terrible place to live
- if you like things like a free press, rule or law & the balances of democracy.
Apologising for Putinism is an *insult* to Russians who want what you’ve got.
They have one big advantage, freedom and democracy. What went wrong in Europe and America ?
Are you seriously suggesting there is freedom & democracy in Russia?!?
- Even those who love Putin laugh at that idea.
- They admit that they prefer less freedom & less democracy, in favour of their “strong leader”.
They choose to infantalise themselves & give-up their responsibilities to another.
A contemptible position.
You guys are deluded if you think Russia is a beacon of democracy I wouldn’t trust them as far as I could throw as the saying goes. Ask the citizens of the country’s they occupied during the Second World War and during Cold War.
If you go back in History and look how bad the Russians treated the Ukrainians, then you can kind of understand the hatred the Ukrainians have for the Russians and just due to that fact it’s not very hard for anybody to instigate a fight.
Well this is true. I remember having dinner in Dublin on evening 7 years or do age with these very lovely Ukrainians grandparents. I asked him thoughts on russia and they hate them for starving the people of Ukraine for raping their resources and for comdeming Ukraine to soviet poverty.
Russia is like a plague. They just consume and leave a trail of deviation
I might get stick for saying this but may god forgive the Russians and the Ukranians for what the deeds that are unfolding..
To be far their is animals on both sides. The Ukrainian military has been turning blind eye to the neo nazi paramilitaries they are equipping. Part of me sees why. I guess they are willing to fight and the bigger issue is russia.
The Russians on the other hand have invaded. Indiscriminate shelling of residential areas including schools and hospitals and “disappearing” anyone loyal to the democratic government in Kiev. There is a genocide going on by those rebels and possibly the Russian military. If they are not directly involved they are watching it and helping.
Ukraine is a mess and not everyone there is a good guy but they are sovereign they have been invaded. Families that beg for the life we have are being slaughtered. Europe needs to step up here. The UK and France came to polands aid against Germany. Germany now needs to remember it’s payback time to humanity and go with supplying defensive arms to Ukraine.
Once too many Russians go home in body bags they can’t hide it from their families as training accidents for very long. Russians want the life we lead too. Afraid to rise up.
Very informative clip. Evidently a big percentage of the troops trapped in the caldron are Western mercenaries, ‘blackwater’ types. And they’re in a position where they’ll either surrender or get wiped out trying to escape. could end up being very embarrassing to the ‘peace-seeking’ West.
Last 3 minutes worth looking at.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IcwOYEasuE
See also :
The Western Holocausting of Ukraine
http://russia-insider.com/en/politics_ukraine/2015/02/17/3565
It’s putins load
Pat O’Dywer, yer man that does those YouTube videos 108morris108 is a head the ball. The only thing he’s missing from those videos is little green men and an endless supply of shiny tinfoil to keep him entertained.
Please don’t fill the comments with the absolute waffle of a paranoid schizophrenic.
Pat – please, you must try harder.
Don’t say a “BIG percentage”.
Use your usual terminology … like “some evidence of” or “increasing reports of”.
Perhaps then you’ll persuade people will believe your nonsense.
OK, first of all, the guy in that video is spouting nonsense in half of it. Secondly, in his haste to get his unresearched viewpoints across, he continuously trips over his own words. Thirdly, he has provided absolutely no evidence that he even researched his information, never mind provided any evidence for his claims.
As for the second link, well the following sentence sums things up pretty well: “Russia had invested 100 billion in subsidies that had kept the kleptocratic government on Russia’s eastern border afloat.” In other words, Russia was propping up a regime that it knew was stealing from its own people. Now, that to me sounds like Russia was meddling already for quite some time and doing so to the detriment of Ukraine’s civilian population.
“German Intelligence…stated the real death figures…were in the 50,000 range”. It’s strange that in all of the Russian- and Iranian-aligned media outlets reporting this (I’m have yet to find a non-partisan or Western media outlet reporting on this), that not one of them has reported the name of the German intelligence agency that stated that figure, as there is a lot more than one German intelligence agency.
“Several members of the looting Oligarchy have fled to Israel, where they pay the customary 1-million dollar bribe for citizenship and gain Israel’s promise of extradition protection and asset seizure.” If this were true then the article would have been able to name at least one oligarch, but it can’t. Now it is quite possible that this is happening, but the fact the article can’t mention one single name suggests the piece was written based on hearsay, and not on actual research and gathering evidence.
more of Putins POV from Comerade Pat our local FSB operative
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