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MADRID — Tens of thousands of angry Spaniards protested in 80 cities throughout Spain on Thursday against the government's latest austerity package, blaming officials for "ruining" the country.
Protesters flooded Madrid's main Puerta del Sol square and the streets in front of parliament late into the night. Large deployments of riot police manned barricades in front of the legislature, fearing rising tensions could lead to violence.
Large crowds also gathered in Barcelona and Bilbao, while leading Spanish newspaper El Pais estimated on its website that more than 100,000 had attended the rally in the capital.
Marchers in Madrid carried Spanish flags bearing black bows for mourning and banners saying, "No to the cuts" and "You have ruined us."
1. El Pais is a centre left newspaper in Spain, and is not exactly great friends with the sitting goverment.
2. Yes there were a lot of people. Last time they tried this a few months ago, the numbers were much lower...we are talking 100s.
3. The government needs to be protested as the crap they are doing is more based ideology, rather than logic and the right thing. Raising VAT is nuts. Raising taxes on the rich and cutting swearheart deals with big business would have been better. Fixing the Spanish labour market rules would be better.
4. The irony is that new government has absolute control almost and it was 2 long time held goverment party regions that asked for help. They basically can not get thier act together.
As it stands now it is the weak and poor who are paying for the crisis. Where as the those who in large part are responsible for the crisis have gotten off, not to mention got back in political power...yes the sitting goverment party was one the reasons behind the crisis.
Look at the Bankia cluster****.. they should have nationalised the bank,split off the crap parts, and refloated the bank later on. Buuuut no,they tried to avoid the whole thing instead....because the bank is in reality the bank of the PP in Madrid....and PP is the governing party.
What pepole should ask is, why the 92k new jobs created last month got no coverage.......
Sendt fra min Transformer TF101 med Tapatalk2
Seems like a tug of war between Germany and the rest of Europe. Not sure anyone knows what the final answer will be. I would have thought something like a Eurobond to stabilize rates would have been the answer, but it does not look like that is going to happen. Perhaps the ECB will do what the Federal Reserve bank is doing and buy up bonds in sufficient quantity to drive down rates.
Eurobonds will happen, but Germany wants the institutions and rules in place first.. a wise but dangerous move.
All that has to happen is the ECB start printing money.. that would "fix" a lot of things in the short and medium term, but as long as there is no "stick" to keep the pressure on the structural reforms... not the deficit cutting, but structural reforms, then it wont be allowed by the Germans.
The trouble Eurobonds have been talked about for over a year now. When will the Euro Countries gain some urgency?
Now the ironic thing is... the Euro is around the 1.20 mark, and looking to go even further down, which is only good news for Germany and other exporting countries in the Eurozone. I know for a fact that Spanish exports are at almost record highs. Second half of the year could see a recovery based on exports in the Eurozone.
But is it not the, non-exporting countries, that are dragging the Euro down? I am in Portugal right now, and things look quite bleak (I though UK Shopping oulets were closing at a rapid rate, here it must be every third shop that has closed), with tourism down etc. I have had some interesting conversations with coach drivers, Hotel staff...all blaming their Politicians for the present crisis.
Paul
-- Now the ironic thing is... the Euro is around the 1.20 mark, and looking to go even further down, which is only good news for Germany and other exporting countries in the Eurozone. I know for a fact that Spanish exports are at almost record highs. Second half of the year could see a recovery based on exports in the Eurozone.
Is that you finally recognising that devaluing a currency can actually produce positive results for an exporting nation?
And before you turn this around to the UK, yeah our economy shrunk and there's some interesting comments coming from some Lib Dems about sacking George Osborne and Ed Balls (my least favourite Labour politician) is actually starting to sound convincing.
Eurobonds will happen, but Germany wants the institutions and rules in place first.. a wise but dangerous move.
The trouble Eurobonds have been talked about for over a year now. When will the Euro Countries gain some urgency?
When it is an actual problem. Right now this "crisis" is doing what the German's want... driving the Euro lower, while putting pressure on the problem children to either leave the Euro or fix their structural problems that has caused much of the problems. And the results are different.
Portugal is doing great, Ireland as well. Italy is getting better. Spain is hurting in large part due to market pressures often based on short term profit rather than actual economic figures and facts. And then there is Greece... well, Greece is Greece.
But is it not the, non-exporting countries, that are dragging the Euro down?
No. Italy is a massive manufacturing and exporting nation. Spain is not small either, and its exports have gone up and up. Portugal also is actually doing quite well, meeting its bailout conditions and closing in on, if not passed the critical primary surplus plus a positive balance of payments. As it stands now, Portugal is doing better than Ireland on the macro economic level.. now if Portugal can keep going with its structural changes, then Portugal could very well be the next "tiger" in the industrialised world.
I am in Portugal right now, and things look quite bleak (I though UK Shopping oulets were closing at a rapid rate, here it must be every third shop that has closed), with tourism down etc. I have had some interesting conversations with coach drivers, Hotel staff...all blaming their Politicians for the present crisis.
Paul
Its bleak everywhere in large part thanks to the negative views of the media. It is bleak here in Southern Spain, and people are complaining, but yet the statistics dont exactly match this pessimism. If I look at the local tourist town, it looks packed. Hotels have 75%+ occupancy rating according to the hotel organisation, and the beaches are packed. Of course that does not mean that these tourists spend money, but you can not deny that there are plenty of people here.
Point is, much of the pessimism out there is not based on economic facts, but on negative media coverage... aka the doom and gloom. Even my home country, where the economy is pretty good, most people are pessimistic and think Italy, Spain and so on are in full riot and nearing civil war (yes exaggerating a lot there), where as the reality is much different.
Take my local area.. one would think from the media coverage that businesses are folding like law chairs in Spain, and unemployment is going up and up. Now the reality is, yes some businesses and shops are closing, but new ones come in their places. Unemployment has actually gone down the last few months, more than it normally does during this period. But none of this positive news is relayed through the media... only the negative. For example, in June, Spain gained more new jobs than the US, and in a country 1/4 the size of the US.
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