As New Austerity Protests Rock Spain, Is the Country Becoming Ungovernable?

July 20, 2012 from Al Jazeera English

Eurozone ministers are expected to give their final approval of a huge bailout of Spanish banks on Friday. But, in Madrid, police fired rubber-coated bullets to disperse protesters. They are angry at the latest budget cuts and tax hikes as demonstrations were held in 80 cities. Al Jazeera's Paul Brennan reports.

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2011-2013 Spanish Protests

The 2011–present Spanish protests, also referred to as the 15-M Movement, the Indignants Movement, and Take the Square #spanishrevolution are a series of ongoing demonstrations in Spain whose origin can be traced to social networks such as Real Democracy NOW or Youth Without a... Explore this topic

2008-2013 Spanish financial crisis

The 2008–2013 Spanish financial crisis began as part of the world Late-2000s financial crisis and continued as part of the European sovereign debt crisis, which has affected primarily the southern European states and Ireland. In Spain, the crisis was generated by long-term loa... Explore this topic

Anti-austerity protests

Anti-austerity protests, chiefly taking the form of massive street protests by those affected by them and some of them also involving a greater or lesser degree of militancy, have happened regularly across various countries, especially on the European continent, since the onse... Explore this topic

Spain

Spain, officially the Kingdom of Spain, is a sovereign state and a member of the European Union . It is located on the Iberian Peninsula in southwestern Europe. Its mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea except for a small land boundary with Gibral... Explore this topic

Austerity

In economics, austerity describes policies used by governments to reduce budget deficits during adverse economic conditions. These policies can include spending cuts, tax increases, or a mixture of the two. Austerity policies may be attempts to demonstrate governments' liquidi... Explore this topic

Unemployment

Unemployment occurs when people are without work and actively seeking work. The unemployment rate is a measure of the prevalence of unemployment and it is calculated as a percentage by dividing the number of unemployed individuals by all individuals currently in the labor forc... Explore this topic

Eurozone

The eurozone, officially called the euro area, is an economic and monetary union of 17 European Union member states that have adopted the euro as their common currency and sole legal tender. The eurozone currently consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France,... Explore this topic

Mariano Rajoy

Mariano Rajoy Brey; born 27 March 1955 is the Prime Minister of Spain, elected on 21 December 2011. He has been leader of the People's Party since 2004. Under Prime Minister José María Aznar, Rajoy was Minister of Public Administration from 1996 to 1999 and Minister of Educati... Explore this topic

Madrid

Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be around 6.5 million. It is the third-largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and... Explore this topic

Public sector

The public sector refers to "the part of the economy concerned with providing basic government services. The composition of the public sector varies by country, but in most countries the public sector includes such services as the police, military, public roads, public transit... Explore this topic

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2011-2013 Spanish Protests

2008-2013 Spanish financial crisis

Anti-austerity protests

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