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Civil and economic instability continues to increase across Europe. Worryingly the conditions are now ripe for conflict and more. Let us hope that we have that one wrong. Striking Miners in Spain had undertaken a three-week trek as a protest against austerity measures which will impact on them, their employment and the people of Spain.

The marches reached Madrid today, July 11, 2012. Miners are not the only Spanish citizens at the end of their tether though.

Their march has been inspirational. People have finally began to stand up and be counted in Spain. Pushed to the extreme by the government's austerity plans workers are saying that enough is enough.

Around 240 miners have been walking through the red hot heat of a Spanish Summer to take their protest to the authorities. Hailing from Northern Spain some days these men have marched 20 miles in order to meet today's deadline for the Madrid protest.

EU members agreement to halt subsidies to non profit making Spanish mines by 2018 may make sense to politicians. For the miners it will sound the death knell to their occupation. Like mining communities in the UK during Maggie Thatcher's premiership towns, villages, jobs and future jobs will be lost.

The Miner's Union believes that the cuts are more about hitting the Union or even tearing it apart. Well that is what happened in the UK. Miners leaders have said that the authorities claim it is about making cuts but then pour money into other resources such as banks.

But even as the marching miners approached their Madrid destination the current Spanish PM was about to address parliament with more bad news. VAT will be increased by 3% to 21%. This will hit tourists as well as locals making it a double blow for local economies.

The move is to please Brussels and other Eurozone members and of course Germany's Angela Merkel, but it will not please the majority of Spaniards.If Spain however is to receive the huge amount of money needed to bail out yet more banls ot will have to jump through the EU hoops.

Spanish protesters have been evident from other areas today. Some have been using guerilla tactics for weeks,in what could easily become an uprising. There will not be support for such an uprising by the West though, unlike in Syria.

Trouble flared in Madrid as protesters including the marchers rallied. As government Ministers responded to questions about the bank bailout the protesting miners took their voice into the heart of Parliament. 

The attached RT video claim Spain is being sacrificed to save dying banks. Yes it is and on it goes. No light at the end of the tunnel. No breathing space. Simply more doom and bloom.

When will they realise that enough is enough?

Politicians can posture all they like but in the end they are public servants who are supposed to represent the people, not Brussels.

Tags: Spanish protests, marching miners, Spanish banks, ailing banks in Spain. Spain, civil unrest, EU politics, Brussels

 
 
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This blogger has just returned from a week on the Balearic Spanish Island of Menorca. It was as always a lovely break in the sun but it was plain to see the people of Spain have worries. Unemployment is high and increasing all the time, the value of the Euro is down and Spain's banks are floundering. This week Spanish banks have been downgraded by Moody's investor service. 16 banks in total have been affected. Moody's have said they will be reviewing other banks in the near future.

A jittery week on the stock market has added to Spanish woes and those people with money in some of Spain's banks have moved their savings elsewhere. As yet there has not been a run on the banks but undersandably confidence is low.

Mounting debts in Spain look impossible to clear. Some will take hundreds of years, or longer, to pay off. In other words the debts will sooner or later need to be written off or they will pull the country and its people under. It is loooking increasingly likely that Spain will need to call on the EU to help out. Whether it would need a bail out on the scale of Greece is not known. Spain may not yet be in the same predicament as Greece but it has many economic woes.

The older generation have in some was seen it all before. For these people the threat of conflict in Europe and poverty seem a real possibility. The feeling that Spain and other countries are gradually being dictated to by German Chancellor Angela Merkel causes concern. Protests in Spain continue to come from the younger generation, especially students, but all age groups are losing their work and feeling the pinch.

For many the Spanish Dream is over.