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Meanwhile in Spain

Justin Horton

Outrage over Ukraine. Demonstrators blockade the government headquarters in protest against the government. The prime minster causes further offence by referring to the demonstrators as 'Nazis and criminals'. The government then tries to close down protest using force. John Kerry expresses 'disgust'.

Less outrage over Spain, where the conservative government is to introduce legislation to forbid, among other things, unauthorised demonstrations outside government headquarters. Organisers are to be punished with fines of up to €30,000 (eyewatering enough, though the original figure was €600,000). Dolores de Cospedal, the secretary of the ruling party, has used the term 'Nazismo puro' to refer to protesters.

The legislation is due to be passed next month, in time perhaps for protests against the privatisation of pensions, of which Olli Rehn will approve but which the Spanish electorate do not recall seeing in any manifesto. It also illegalises interference with evictions, which continue in their thousands.

In Ukraine, protest continues. In Spain, it is shortly to be silenced – not by chainsaws, but by fear of destitution.


Comments


  • 12 December 2013 at 10:34am
    farthington says:
    Quite.
    Putin the wolf in wolf's clothing.
    And Europe? The wolf in the proverbial sheep's clothing.
    Have the protestors informed themselves of the impasse at the heart of the EU?
    Enslavement for the periphery; enhancement of German hegemony.
    Total unaccountability from Brussels.
    If France has no hope under the current regime, what chance the Ukraine?
    Ukraine's breadbasket there for the taking, and with the diabolical Monsanto frothing at the mouth for conquest, and like predators, courtesy of the totalitarian Trans-Atlantic Trade Treaty.

  • 12 December 2013 at 12:28pm
    foreign_correspondent says:
    The law that the Spanish government wants to pass to restrict unauthorised demonstrations outside government headquarters (the new legislation doesn't apply to authorised demonstrations) shares some similarities with the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act that was passed in the UK in 2005 which aimed to "criminalise unauthorised demonstrations within an exclusion zone of one kilometre around Parliament Square" (http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/libertycentral/2008/dec/16/serious-organised-crime-act).
    Although some modifications were later introduced to the SOCPA, I believe it's still being debated both in Parliament and in court (http://www.repeal-socpa.info).