anti-austerity movement in spain Anti-Austerity-Movement-in-Spain

10 5.1 5 Citizens’ Security law The Anti-austerity movement in Spain is fundamentally rooted in the gathering of the nations’ citizens in the street to voice resistance to Spain’s unopposed right wing government dominated by the People’s Party. However, the recently passed Citizens Security Law (dubbed the “gag law”), viewed by many as a blatant restriction of civil liberties comparable to the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, is designed to quell this opposition in order to maintain the hold it has on Spanish society. In response, the Spanish people subverted these measures by protest- ing via holograms instead, avoiding arrest and setting an incredibly unique precedent across the world. 5.1.1 Background: Protests On May 15, 2011, powerful, relentless chants of “sí, se puede” (roughly “yes, it can be done”) could be heard echoing from the thousands of young Spaniards known as los indignados (“the indignants”) ﬁlling Madrid’s Puerta Del Sol Square as well as 57 other Spanish cities. This is how the Spanish Anti-Austerity Movement began: “an impromptu revolt of thousands…rallying against a polit- ical establishment felt to be out of sync with the people” which continued for many days yet. [127] Four years later, on January 31, 2015, the same cries of “si, se puede” rang through the same square in central Madrid, this time in the form of Podemos (“we can”), an insurgent force with roots in los indignados’ ideology and vision for Spain. [128] Podemos’ fundamentally anti-corruption platform, the in- credibly high standards of purity, and its singularity in “threatening to bring an end to the bipartisan political system that has governed Spain since the death of gen- eral Francisco Franco in 1975” brought Podemos eas- ily to the top of opinion polls last year in anticipation of “a year packed with municipal, regional, and general elections.” [128] The new party’s moralistic overtones com- bined with its impeccable timing and lack of similar com- petition struck a chord with the nation’s youth among many others and won it 1.2 million votes and ﬁve seats in May’s European elections. 5.1.2 Content Podemos is an example of a strong resurgence from the left across Europe to crippling austerity measures in sev- eral countries that have left citizens homeless, jobless, and without hope. [129][130] In Spain, nearly 25% of peo- ple are unemployed and evictions have reached a rate of as high as 500 per day among a wide variety of other economic issues, leading to a number of generally peace- ful protests seeking change in the way the government handles them. [131] In addition to forming the founda- tion of Podemos as well as Ciudadanos, another fun- damentally anti-austerity and anti-corruption party, [132] these protests have elicited multiple attempts by the gov- 2014 EVENTS ernment to silence them culminating in what many see as “something out of the generalissimo’s handbook”. [133] The measures the law takes to silence the voices of the Spanish people are absolutely devastating, including unimaginably steep ﬁnes or jail time for disrespecting police oﬃcers (600 euros), [134] taking and sharing im- ages of state security forces that might endanger them or their operations” (30,000 euros), [134] protesting in front of government buildings, protesting at a time or loca- tion not approved by the police (600,000 euros), [135] or even using a hashtag in a tweet publicizing an event that breaks the rules in any way. [136] Internet activity alone can result in up to ﬁve years behind bars. [137] The law also extends to even more restrictive and vague measures, such as “playing games or sports in public spaces that are not designed for such activity” (1000 euros), [138] “pro- jecting ‘luminous devices’ (e.g. lasers) in the vicinity of public transport in a way that ‘might cause accidents’” (600,000 euros), [139] insulting the state or “participating in the disruption of citizens’ security while using hoods, helmets, or any other article of clothing or object that covers the face, rendering identiﬁcation diﬃcult or im- possible” (30,000 euros), [139] and “failure to cooperate with law enforcement during crime investigations or in the prevention of acts that might put citizens’ security at risk” (30,000 euros). [139] Acts of terrorism under the act include clauses as loosely deﬁned as “the commission of any serious crime against…liberty.” [139] According to Spain’s interior minister, Jorge Fernández Diaz, “It’s a law for the 21st Century. It provides bet- ter guarantees for people’s security and more judicial se- curity for people’s rights.” [140] What is allegedly an act against terrorism “to guarantee a freer and more peaceful coexistence for all Spaniards…eradicating violence,” [138] ironically quite seriously threatens this ideal by making police and federal security personnel (who are often re- sponsible for committing this type of violence) signiﬁ- cantly less accountable, while expanding the role of pri- vate security forces “lacking both proper training and the proper level of public accountability” (assuming that nor- mal police forces do indeed possess these qualities). [139] Another problem with this policy is that it is fundamen- tally anti-immigrant in nature, crippling the group tar- geted most severely by austerity measures even more by forcing everyone to present identity documents at inter- net cafés, prohibitively complicating undocumented mi- grants’ communications outside the country. [139] The law also contains a provision validating and formalizing the process of expulsion for Moroccans who jump the border fence into Spain’s African outposts of Ceuta and Melilla, which according to the International Federation for Hu- man Rights “restrict[s] the right to seek asylum and vi- olate[s] the principle of non-refoulement and the pro- hibition of collective expulsions” as well as “[exposing] migrants to a serious risk of torture and ill-treatment by denying them the possibility of ﬁling a claim against law enforcement personnel in case of abuse.” [133]

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