Barcelona marchers slam spending cuts - Independent Online

Reuters

Demonstrators carrying banners and placards protest in Barcelona. Tens of thousands of Spaniards abandoned their customary quiet day with families and friends on Sunday to march against the so-called "Euro Pact" and the handling of the economic crisis.

Barcelona - Around 50 000 people in Barcelona joined a nationwide protest against spending cuts, unemployment and government corruption on Sunday, police said.

The "indignant" protest movement, which organised a similar demonstration in the capital Madrid and in roughly 100 small towns and cities around Spain, encouraged people to protest against the government's response to the country's perilous financial situation.

"The street is ours. We are not going to pay for their crisis," shouted demonstrators as they moved through two main squares in central Barcelona, capital of the Catalan region and Spain's second-largest city.

In their call to protesters, the "indignants" said the politicians and bankers who caused the crisis should be told that workers and the unemployed will not passively accept the solutions proposed by powerful interests.

Demonstrators also said they were frustrated by the government's failure take on corruption and address the unemployment rate, which stands at 21 percent.

In Madrid, the El-Mundo newspaper quoted police as saying that up to 40 000 demonstrators flooded the city streets on Sunday, blaming bankers and politicians for causing a financial crisis that forced the country to adopt painful spending cuts.

In Valencia, Spain's third-largest city, several thousand people also took to the streets to tail against the government's austerity measures. - Sapa-AFP