Inspired by the new constitution in Iceland, the rebellions in the Arab states and a combination of wikileaks, disaffection with the political class and its endemic corruption and a youth unemployment rate of some 44% as well as the perceived abuses of the existing workforce by the employers’ association, Spain is rebelling.
Huge protests in Madrid and Barcelona calling for changes in the political system along with supporting protests in other cities around Spain have changed the landscape of the country. Spain has been known for many decades now as a “Pasota” country, ie everyone just shrugs their shoulders and gets on with life however bad the perceived slight, Spain is starting to go back to its roots of anarchism and uprising as a new generation who see themselves as having nothing to lose as they have no present and no future.
Well that is the doomsday scenario but I believe that this will peter out as the entrenched political system is enshrined in the constitution and however corrupt the politicians are, and they are very corrupt, the system allows them to continue on their merry way. In the Valencia region I believe that 14 of the candidates for the PP nominations are implicated in some way in corruption scandals related to the Caso Gurtel. The only reason they can stand is the slow nature of the Spanish legal system. The amazing thing is that they will retain power in the community with a hugely increased majority because the opposition here, the PSOE, are the national government, a government that has spent six years being rather spectacularly useless.
Dali Premonition of War
Yesterday Matthew Bennett tweeted some images of the old and new politics. Camps and Rajoy of the PP had a “mitin” in the bullring in Valencia. The average age of the people there was, to be kind, middle aged. There were also images and videos from the “concentración” in Madrid of the new politics, supported by the social networks, text messages and the new media of blogs and other internet channels. Average age, mid 20′s, average IQ a lot higher.
A generational conflict is taking place. The politicians all belong to the older generation and are accused, quite rightly, of having been involved in politics only to get their part of the pie rather than for the good of the people they supposedly represent. The younger generation represent people who perceive that they have seen their parents and grandparents take away their future by the corrupt and empty way that they conducted themselves since democracy came to Spain in 1978.
What will happen is still unclear but remember a governmental change happened after the bombings in Madrid due to a text message campaign against the lies perpetrated by the government at the time who tried to blame ETA when everything pointed to Al Qaida or another splinter Arab group.
And we still have a year left until the real national elections. By then the disaffection could mean something on a larger national scale if the momentum is kept up. After all there is plenty to be dissatisfied by for the majority of the youth in Spain.
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[...] Solo May 18, 2011 By admin Nothing to do with Entrepreneurialism but a lot to do with what is starting to happen in Spain. Will the “Democracia Real Ya” movement have legs? Inspired by Iceland and the Arab [...]
Although we have municipal and regional elections this may 20th, demostrations won’t stop. A corrupt system like ours in Spain can’t be changed in one week. There’s too much inertia.
We know the struggle will be hard and long. But as long as the rest of the citizenship, young and old, keep joinig the demostrations we know we’ll prevail. Even if we don’t in the short time, things will be different in Spain from now on for sure.
Thank you for your article. The rest of the world must know even though the local media either ignore us or lie about us for their own interest.
Let’s hope so Jose Manuel. Corruption is much too much endemic in the political classes in Spain. I cannot begin to count the number of corruption cases I know first hand about around Valencia, from all parties!
“Libya, Egypt, Syria… ? Are they ‘democratic revolutions’ or are they just more ‘palace coups’ in favour of the old-new power elite and an old-new tyranny?”
“A revolution should be seen as a new stage of development, primarily a new way of thinking and innovation in a system of social relations and governance. If it fails to do that then it is merely yet another ‘palace coup’ bringing grist to someone else’s mill.”
“…The new political system can minimize eternal problems of the power such as corruption, infringement of the rights and freedom under the imperfect legislation, etc. They are solved by cross check of several competing parties within the multi-polar government: the blunders of the contender raise chances of a survival in the power of other participants. The health-enhancing competition of political movements can benefit to all of society.” – The multipolar political system.