Spanish protesters furious over soaring unemployment remained camped in a Madrid square Saturday after all-night festivities in defiance of a 48-hour ban ahead of local elections. Some 25,000 people, according to Spanish media, crammed the central Puerta del Sol square, spilling onto surrounding streets, late on Friday to stage a brief silent protest, their hands in the air and many with their mouths covered by tape.
The crowd, most of them young people, then erupted in whistles and cheers of joy as the ban ordered by Spain's election commission took effect at the chimes of midnight. "Now we are all illegal" and "the people united will never be defeated," were among the chants of the protesters. Thousands remained until the early hours of Saturday amid a party atmosphere in the vast square in the heart of city's historic old town, the sounds of banging drums echoing through the district. By morning only a few hundred were camped in tents or covered by cardboard under the vast blue tarpaulins that cover much of the square. Hundreds of others, including tourists, shoppers and sightseers, milled around the square.
Dozens however began leaving the site with their sleeping bags or mattresses, as cleaners tried to clear up the mess left behind. "This has been necessary, in Spain they didn't believe that people were capable of doing it," said Julia Estefania, 20, a student who had come from the city of Toledo for the protest.
"We didn't feel like sleeping much. We finally laid down at about 6am," said Irene, an 18-year-old student. Spain's leading daily El Pais said around 60,000 people took part in nation-wide protests during the night. Apart from Madrid, the largest gatherings were in Valencia, where 10,000 took part, in Malaga, with 7,000, and in Barcelona, where some 6,000 turned out. Smaller demonstrations also took place in Granada, Sevilla, Almeria, Cadiz, Santander, Bilbao, San Sebastian and La Coruna, among other towns and cities.