Despite export boom, Spain wracked by protests

The hundreds of thousands of protesters who turned out to protest over the weekend want the Spanish government to roll back deep austerity cuts in health-care, education, and the welfare state.

|
Paul White/AP
Protesters stand behind a cut-out figure of silent movie actor Charlie Chaplin during a protest outside the Palacio de la Musica cinema in Madrid, Spain, March 25. The cinema, built in 1926, is one of many cinemas and theaters that have closed down in the Gran Via and other areas of the city, only to be sold off for use as commercial businesses such as shopping centers. The banner reads 'In defense of our culture' and the speech bubble reads 'Save our cinemas.'

The scale of this weekend’s anti-austerity protests in Spain spells political instability ahead for the country. Despite an influx of investor capital into the country’s export sector, the rest of Spain’s economy continues to lag, especially in creating employment for millions of young people.

“There’s a lot of frustration from all sides with the political establishment,” says our correspondent in Madrid. “Spain’s recovery, like much of the periphery, is a two-sided story. Some sectors are certainly benefiting, and there is growth, and there is job creation in some very specific sectors. But for broader society, there is no recovery.”

The hundreds of thousands of protesters who turned out Saturday are looking for the government to roll back deep austerity cuts in health-care, education, and the welfare state. Frustration with the rising cost of living and an unemployment problem that will take at least a decade to clear up has brought even center-right voters into the anti-austerity fold. But with fiscal targets mandated by the European Union, politicians’ hands are mostly tied, our correspondent notes.

The ruling center-right party looks increasingly weak heading into a trio of elections over the next year and a half. The ruling party hasn’t even fielded its candidate for European parliamentary elections in May, essentially throwing in the towel, our correspondent says.... For the rest of the story, continue reading at our new business publication Monitor Global Outlook.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Despite export boom, Spain wracked by protests
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2014/0325/Despite-export-boom-Spain-wracked-by-protests
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe