Spanish government unsure on protests

This video from Spain is called Tens of thousands join Puerta del Sol protest.

By Bill Benfield:

Zapatero unsure on capital demos

Friday 20 May 2011

Spain‘s national electoral commission has declared tomorrow’s protest rallies illegal but the prime minister avoided saying today whether he will order police to break them up.

The commission issued its order on Thursday evening as thousands of people demonstrated for a fourth straight night in central Madrid.

In the capital and dozens of other cities citizens marched over the mishandling of the country’s economic crisis by political parties they see as inept, corrupt and indifferent to ordinary people struggling to get by.

Municipal and regional elections are scheduled for tomorrow, and the protesters have said they will continue to demonstrate.

In a radio interview, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said he will play things by ear as to whether he will order police to break up demonstrations.

“Let’s see what happens tomorrow. In any case, I should not get ahead of events,” he said.

“What I can say is that the government and Interior Ministry will behave well, will behave correctly and will behave with intelligence.”

In Spain, rallies that urge people to vote one way or the other are banned the day before an election.

The 13-member national election commission cited this rule in saying there could be no protests tomorrow or on election day.

But it was deeply divided, with the ban approved by a one-vote margin.

The panel was convened to give a blanket ruling for all of Spain because provincial election bodies had issued contradictory rulings on whether protests were allowed.

“On days of reflection and voting, our electoral legislation prohibits any act of propaganda or electoral campaigning,” the commission wrote.

Organisers of the protests say they have no party affiliation, are not trying to affect the outcome and are not even urging people to abstain from voting.

This is a video about a solidarity demonstration in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, with the Spanish protests.

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