Spain’s middle class are on the march – well at least 1,000 of them are. The event was reported in the on-line Periodista Digital which asked why the major newspapers, TV channels and radio stations ignored the protest through Madrid to the Palacio de La Moncloa on Saturday. Amongst the protestors’ gripes is the rise in taxes backed by a demand for early elections.The demonstration was mounted by the Plataforma de las Clases Medias. The middle class activists gathered in the Plaza de Alonso Martínez for a brief meeting at which they denounced the suffering of the Spanish people at the hands of politicians and those well connected with the governing elite.
After the meeting the protestors made their way through the streets under a police escort to the Prime Minister’s residence of the Palacio de La Moncloa. There they shouted – “Zapatero, liar” and “Zapatero, resign”.
During his closing address the president of the Plataforma de las Clases Medias, Enrique de Diego, blasted all the administrations for raising taxes, impoverishing the middle classes and leaving them in despair. He threatened a fiscal insurrection in January if the government did not immediately close the ministries of housing, equality and culture.
The action group has called for a general strike between noon and 13.00 on Thursday February 4 of next year. On the same day all Spaniards are asked to gather outside their town hall to protest in a general and intense demonstration against maladministration and corruption.
A thousand angry middle class people a revolution does not make. However whilst we are used to the unions and left wing parties taking to the streets in support of the unemployed, working class and disadvantaged the middle class are expected to stay put in their comfort zone and only speak out against the government of the day over the drinks at a dinner party. It would seem the times are changing and this economic crisis has given a voice to the silent, middle-class, majority.
(Photo: Periodista Digital)
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