Protests in Spain began in March 2012, but in July they took on a massive and ubiquitous nature. More than one and a half million people from 80 major cities of the country took part in the marches on July 19-20. About 600, 000 residents and visitors took to the streets of Madrid. The center of the capital is paralyzed, the parliament and government agencies are taken into custody.
The crisis in Spain began long before the start of the strikes and forced the government to take quite stringent measures. In March, new labor legislation was passed that simplified the procedure for dismissing employees, which caused widespread unrest and clashes with the government.
At the end of May 2012, another strike took place, this time on strike by educators, students and their parents. The government’s plan included a reduction in education spending of € 3 billion.
In June 2012, the country's government had to turn to the European Union to request financial assistance in the amount of 100 billion euros. The reason was the problem of several banks. It was decided to nationalize these banks, by July they were nationalized: Catalunya Caixa, Banco de Valencia, NovaGalicia and Bankia, and only Bankia requested financial assistance in the amount of 19 billion euros.
A prerequisite of the European Union in providing assistance was the measures of strict budget savings - reduction of unemployment benefits, reduction of salaries, increase in taxes. The Spanish government has decided to increase the value added tax by 3% (from 18% to 21%), as a result of the average family expenses will increase by 450 euros. The number of municipal institutions was reduced by 30%, and the number of state enterprises was reduced. Unemployment benefits are reduced by 10%, despite the fact that Spain has the highest unemployment rate among EU countries - almost 25% (among youth unemployment reaches 50%). In addition, civil servants' salaries were reduced by 7%, and the extra days for vacation and the payment of bonuses were canceled.
Such tough measures could not but cause outrage among the people. Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to take part in protests. The largest trade unions of the country and the General Association of Workers, associations of police officers, officials, military, judges, firefighters, students - all forgot their previous differences and united under the slogan: "The authorities are destroying the country, we must stop them."
