Anger rises in Spain and it is justified. The unemployment rate of 25%, reached 52.7% among youth. Pressure from financial markets continues: the borrowing rate amounting up to 10 years is back above the 6% mark since Wednesday. And the government submits to the demands of the banks and the European Commission. This is a year of austerity that Mariano Rajoy presents today, with 39 billion euros of cuts in the budget for 2013.

It should not be surprising that the Spanish citizens gather to denounce a democracy which is "confiscated" and has subjugated itself "to the financial markets." Instead of fanning the fire by repression and criminalization of social movements, the Rajoy government must listen to the Spanish people who suffer.

The Party of the European Left denounces the violence and the disproportionate police forces deployed against the highly symbolic initiative of the 25S "Toma el Congreso."

Fortunately, in Spain, there are forces that listen to people and promote a social, economic and ecological alternative based on a "regeneration" of political life. The EL reaffirms its support to Izquierda Unida (IU), to the Communist party of Spain (PCE) and to the Alternative and United Left of Cataluña (EUiA) and their proposal of a referendum on social cuts.

Party of the European Left
27 September 2012