What will happen tomorrow in Madrid?

Hello, non spanish people 🙂

I write this post in english because it’s written to let you know, from the inside, what it’s going to happen tomorrow. Tomorrow there will be a public demonstration in Madrid, in the Puerta del Sol. The reason for this is the economic and political situation here in Spain.
There’ll be a lot of people, and a lot of cops in their riot police uniforms.  So, it’s very likely that tomorrow night, on TV, you’ll see some riots. And you’ll be thinking «Ah, these spaniards, the government cuts some social benefits they have – at expense of Europe- and they get to the streets to create some trouble.»

Well… not really. The economic situation is bad, and the cutbacks are hurting a lot of those who most need those benefits. But let me share with you some other things that are happening here in Spain this weeks and months. And maybe you’ll get a better notion of what’s going on in this part of the world.

We’re in crisis. A bad one. And some cutbacks were expected. In fact, Rajoy, during his campaign, announced them. So, we all had that in mind, and we were kind of resigned to it. But, let me introduce to you this happy guy.

This is Pedro de Armas. An elected member of the city hall of Arrecife. Doesn’t he look lovely with his green shirt, and that hat?… The problem is that this guy, that should be working in the city hall (that’s for what citizens elected him), has been away for some time. Why? Because he wanted to sail the sea. And he has joined a competition called Gran Prix del Atlantico. To go to the Caribbean. Without leaving his «job» in the city hall. How long ago was that?… Mmmm 5 months. What does his party say about this? A colleague from this party defended him recently. After all, well, isn’t it a nice dream, to go to the Caribbean?…

Let me show you another nice thing. This tapestry.

Oh, so nice. Done by Icouldntcareless, in about… yes, that century.I’ts a tapestry located in the Spanish Parlament. Nice to have beautiful things around our politicians (that helps to prevent their urge to go to the Caribbean, for instance). The thing is,  these days has popped up also the amount of money required to clean and mantain the carpets and tapestries in the Parlament. The budget, for a year is… (ready?)… 660.000 euros. So, that means that every year, from our taxes, about 850.000 dolars go to keep those things nice and clean. You’d think, that in a country that has recently decided not to priovide health care to inmigrants that can’t prove that they pay taxes, they’d find a way to skip this expense this year. Oops. No,  sorry. Some inmigrants will have to live without AIDS retrovirals, but hey, the tapestries will shine this year too. Well done, boys, priorities…

Or look at this beauty.

 That’s the Castellon airport. Built, of course, with a lot of  public money. Do you see how clean from planes it is?. Well, the main reason is that no company in this world considers that there’s a need to take their planes there. You’d think that someone should have thought about that, before spending about 150 million euros. But this is a personal project of Carlos Fabra the president of the Diputacion Provincial de Castellón. If I had to write about all the dirty and corrupt business this man is involved in, you’d be here reading until tomorrow. He has good lawyers, though, and to the moment he has succeeded in getting some of their «irregularities» «prescribed», but hopefully, he’ll face some trials this year. Will he go to jail? Probably, no. And in any case, in every step of the process, his mates in the Partido Popular will try to present him as a «respectable man, affected by a insidious campaign of lies and distortion of the facts». Which is the same thing that the PSOE (the other party) does, everytime that a similar thing happens with one of it’s members.

Or, let’s talk about Urdangarin, the King’s son in law, who has been caught in some dirty business, and that will probably walk free after «returning» what he took. Or Matas, an equivalent of Fabra, in the Balearic Islands, who had the toilet brushes in his home made in gold – I am not kidding, 300€ the piece-.  Of course, you’ll be thinking, «that’s anecdotic». Not really. Do you want to see a map of corruption in Spain? Here you are:

Every sign is a corruption case. And every sign has the symbol of the political party that took part in it. And believe me, if they really had to put every existing case in that map, those signs would have to be way smaller to fit.

And that’s not all, the private sector has his funny moments, too. We could talk about the president of the «Patronal» (Spanish Bussinessmen Association). Who has recently declared that the new laboral laws are great because will allow to «substitute expensive employees for cheaper ones». Yes, using those terms: «expensive» and «cheap».

Or Bankia, that bank that will be rescued with public money. The initial «injection» will be of.. 10.000 million euros. The same day, the government announces a cutback in Health Care and Education for… 10.000 million euros.  Call me suspicious but… is it me or… 10.000 million euros look a lot like 10.000 million euros? We need Sherlock Holmes, Dr. House and a couple more to solve this mistery. Humhum…

So mainly, it’s not the bad economic situation what will take people to the streets tomorrow. Is the general feeling that we are being laughed at. And loud.

And, maybe,  tomorrow you’ll see some riots. And you shouldn’t be surprised. Because although most of the people protesting will do it, as always, in pretty peaceful ways, there always can be a couple of rioters. And if there aren’t, undercover cops will take their role, inciting people to be more violent and agressive. As it has been done in previous demonstrations, when videos taken by citizens proved that some of the most agressive demonstrators were, actually, undercover policemen, «warming things a little».

Which is absurd, because if there’s something that a spaniard knows, these days, is that a spanish riot policeman doesn’t need a «warm» situation to hit you if it pleases him.  As we all could check last year:

Again

And again

(They seem to have some special attraction for hitting girls. Brave guys, our boys in blue…)

So, dear friends from abroad, tomorrow some normal and peaceful people, like me, will go to the Puerta del Sol. With the intention of remain there as much time as possible. To say, more or less: «Stop Laughing at Us».

But, as in the news only the riots will appear, I just wanted to show you a bit more of what’s going on here.

Thanks for reading, thanks for sharing, and excuse the poor English grammar and the mistakes.