NI Spaniards Mount Peaceful City Hall Protest

Belfast-based protests over the failing Spanish economy last weekend saw no repeat of violent scenes in Spain late last month.

Anger over the economic situation initially prompted thousands to fill Madrid's Plaza del Sol and later to stage a separate demonstration in Barcelona's Plaza de Catalunya.

Supporters were shocked by riot police breaking up the anti-government protest camp in Barcelona, and as a result, a solidarity protest took place in Belfast last Sunday.

They were unhappy that the Spanish police had moved against the protestors in force having suggesting they 'needed to empty the square' - which is popular among football fans - ahead of last Saturday's Champions League final between Barcelona and Manchester United.

But, there were no such scenes in Belfast, where, in solidarity with all the protestors, members of NI's growing ex-pat Spanish community added their voices to that of many thousands of Spaniards at home.

The continuing protests are against mass unemployment, political corruption and what they see as the government's mismanagement, during the economic crisis.

A spokesperson for the NI Spanish, Lucia Montobbio said: "Our peaceful protest in front of the City Hall was merged with a movement called Democracia Real Ya, [True Democracy Now], which was inspired by the pro-democracy movements in the Arab world, and used social networks - like twitter or facebook to help organize the demonstrations, which initially began in Spain on Sunday 15th May."

Speaking exclusively to 4ni.co.uk, she said that on Wednesday 18th May, Democracia Real Ya called for demonstrators to not only occupy Madrid's Puerta del Sol but also other main squares in cities across Spain.

"Thousands of Spaniards went out to the streets and occupied several main squares all over the country and these demonstrations became organized camps with different commissions, and settled in the main squares of Spain," she continued.

While the camps were actually banned by Spain's Supreme Court, people stayed on even after the recent Spanish election results as they did "not feel represented by politicians even if they were elected by the inhabitants".

As well as solidarity protests in Washington, New York, London, Paris, Berlin, Copenhagen and Dublin, Spaniards in Belfast, then held their "little peaceful protest in front of the City Hall on 29th May".

Lucia Montobbio said this is far from the end: "This movement is gaining more and more strength in Spain, especially in Barcelona, after the violent action of the police against the peaceful resistance in the squares."

(BMcC/GK)