Saturday

23rd Sep 2023

EU commission willing to meet 'Indignados' in Brussels

The European Commission is willing to meet with representatives of the growing 'indignado' anti-austerity movement and has actively attempted to make contact with the young people, a contingent of whom who have marched from Madrid to Brussels protesting a European Union they say places the interests of banks and big business ahead of ordinary citizens.

"If the indignados come here, Of course I would feel obliged to meet with them," employment and social affairs commissioner Laszlo Andor told reporters on Thursday (13 October).

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

  • The Indignados movement in Spain has spawned followers across the globe (Photo: Ojo Espejo)

Inspired by the Arab Spring, the non-violent movement kicked off on 15 May as young people took over the squares of Spanish cities. The scale of the protests have waxed and waned throughout the year, but between 6.5 million and 8 million Spaniards have participated in the protests according to an estimate by RTVE, the Spanish public broadcaster, and pollsters report that some 80 percent of the population back their cause.

Last weekend, a group of indignados arrived in Brussels after an 80 day trek from Spain. Hundreds of marchers have also made their way to the European capital from Germany and the Netherlands.

The Spanish indignados have in turn inspired similar protests in Greece, Israel, Pakistan, India and the United States, where under a different title - first Occupy Wall Street, then Occupy Boston, Chicago and so on - encampments of young people have targetted stock exchanges and other symbols of economic power.

Whatever they call themselves, the movement, which has won high-profile backing from Joseph Stiglitz, the former chief economist of the World Bank, and Paul Krugman, winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize for Economics, has clearly tapped into a vein of popular dissatisfaction with high unemployment and cuts to social programmes while banks receive trillions in bail-outs. The protests have since spread to over a 150 cities around the world.

On Saturday, demonstrations are planned in 951 cities and 82 countries, the movement claims.

The Hungarian commissioner, who had a long history on the academic left before joining the EU executive, said: "I am absolutely sympathetic about exposing indignation about unemployment."

However, he criticised their targetting of EU institutions: "They should be aware that the Spanish situation was not created here ... to target the European Commission is probably not right.

"They should go to Frankfurt instead,” he joked in a reference to the headquarters of the European Central Bank.

Andor’s staff have tried to make contact with the protestors via the commission’s offices in Spain. They add that the commissioner would even be willing to visit the Parc Elizabeth in the European capital, where they have set up camp.

"If he were invited to the park where they are camped, he could come. He would consider an invitation," said one official. "He’s open. Why would he not be willing to meet them?"

But the indignados must come with a concrete series of complaints to discuss, his staff say: "There has to be a minimum of things to talk about. They have to be really forward with what they want. [The commissioner] does not want to talk about food additives or nuclear power. But he could talk about unemployment and jobs. Do they see a case for European intervention in this area?"

The openness on the part of the employment commissioner contrasts with their reception at the European Parliament on Tuesday after they had been asked by a left-wing Spanish MEP, Willy Meyer, to a meeting to discuss their concerns.

Despite being invited into the building by the euro-deputy, Belgian riot police, including officers on horseback, blocked a group of about 30 indignados from entering the building upon the request of the parliament’s services.

A group of seven was finally let in after MEPs complained.

"The security services behaved in an unacceptable manner to prevent the indignados from entering and treated them like criminals, instead of ordinary people coming in peace to present their concerns," said Meyer after the incident.

A spokesman for the left-wing United European Left grouping in the chamber, David Lundy, told EUobserver: "It was just so over the top. These people had zero intention of storming the parliament. And to think that the square in front of the parliament has just been renamed ‘Solidarnosc Esplanade’, after another democracy protest movement."

Indignados and MEPs debate the crisis

’The EU doesn’t represent citizens’

This website caught up with one of the activists involved who arrived in Brussels separately from the marchers to meet with NGOs and discuss the growing protest movement.

Javier Toret, a Barcelona organiser with Democracy Real Ya (Real Democracy Now), the grassroots citizens' organization that was one of the catalysts for the wider protests, explained why they are targetting the EU and not just their own domestic political and economic elites.

"We believe that real democracy is no longer possible in one country, but on a European level," he said. "The commission, the European Central Bank - they are imposing austerity on us, yet they are not democratic institutions. They are not elected by citizens and they do not represent our interests."

He says the movement is not anti-EU, but that in the wake of the crisis, the whole European project must be rebuilt from the ground up.

Listing a set of far-reaching demands that extend well beyond not merely commissioner Andor’s areas of responsibility, but all the legal powers of the EU executive, Toret did not apologise for the movement’s radical aims.

"It is necessary to completely refound the EU institutions," he said, adding a comment that could perhaps have come out of the mouth of former Belgian prime minister and arch euro-federalist Guy Verhofstadt: "We need a new European constitution written by the citizens."

He said that the attempt at writing a European constitution that was defeated by referendums in France and Netherlands in 2005 was doomed to fail because this was organised in a "top-down" fashion and "constitutionalised neo-liberalism at the EU level."

"This constitution should define new principles of social justice across the European continent, that puts an end to the privileges of politicians and bankers, that goes beyond our current system of political parties and representative democracy and embraces participatory democracy."

He insists that such demands are not hopelessly idealistic and points to an EU-accession candidate as an example. He wants European citizens to draft the document directly, "like they are doing in Iceland."

Icelandic experiment

In the wake of the small north Atlantic nation’s economic collapse, the country embarked on one of the most radical experiments in democracy in history: A new constitution has been crafted by a 25-member assembly of non-politicians that used online ‘crowdsourcing’ via Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, incorporating the sometimes bizarre, sometimes very specific recommendations of ordinary citizens.

The indignados movement has come under criticism in the press for its at times incoherent demands. At their Brussels encampment, political workshop subjects have ranged from adjustments to Europe’s Common Agricultural Policy, the nature of the eurozone debt crisis and the role of lobbyists in EU policy-making to ‘shamanistic chants’ and ‘collectivist aesthetics’ in art.

A messy "press conference" at the camp organised on Thursday took over two hours to complete as all questions could be answered by anyone instead of by professional spokespeople, yielding contradictory responses.

Mass strikes, protests hit Italy, Spain over EU-imposed austerity

Popular anger over Europe’s strategy of austerity for exiting the eurozone crisis spread to Italy on Tuesday as the country was paralysed by a general strike. Hundreds of thousands of ordinary Italians poured into the streets of over a hundred cities and towns to protest what Brussels, Frankfurt and Berlin demand.

Sighs of relief as Egyptian leader resigns

EU figureheads have welcomed the resignation of Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak, who stepped on Friday down after weeks of deadly street clashes. But questions remain as to how democratic the new regime will be.

EU must show solidarity with Tunisia, commissioner says

Tunisian authorities are willing to take back migrants who crossed the Mediterranean over to Italy, but EU states should also help with the relocation of African refugees from Libya, home affairs commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said after her visit to Tunis.

Agenda

This WEEK in the European Union

Billed by the G20 last week as the summit to save the euro, EU leaders will in Brussels on Sunday try to bridge divisions between Germany and France on how to stop Greece and Italy from sinking the single currency.

Agenda

Spain's EU-language bid and UN summit This WEEK

While the heads of EU institutions are in New York for the UN high level meeting, Spain's EU presidency will try to convince ministers to make Catalan, Basque, and Galician official EU languages.

Latest News

  1. Europe's energy strategy: A tale of competing priorities
  2. Why Greek state workers are protesting new labour law
  3. Gloves off, as Polish ruling party fights for power
  4. Here's the headline of every op-ed imploring something to stop
  5. Report: Tax richest 0.5%, raise €213bn for EU coffers
  6. EU aid for Africa risks violating spending rules, Oxfam says
  7. Activists push €40bn fossil subsidies into Dutch-election spotlight
  8. Europe must Trump-proof its Ukraine arms supplies

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. International Medical Devices Regulators Forum (IMDRF)Join regulators, industry & healthcare experts at the 24th IMDRF session, September 25-26, Berlin. Register by 20 Sept to join in person or online.
  2. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  3. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA
  4. International Medical Devices Regulators Forum (IMDRF)Join regulators & industry experts at the 24th IMDRF session- Berlin September 25-26. Register early for discounted hotel rates
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersGlobal interest in the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations – here are the speakers for the launch
  6. Nordic Council of Ministers20 June: Launch of the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. International Sustainable Finance CentreJoin CEE Sustainable Finance Summit, 15 – 19 May 2023, high-level event for finance & business
  2. ICLEISeven actionable measures to make food procurement in Europe more sustainable
  3. World BankWorld Bank Report Highlights Role of Human Development for a Successful Green Transition in Europe
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic summit to step up the fight against food loss and waste
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersThink-tank: Strengthen co-operation around tech giants’ influence in the Nordics
  6. EFBWWEFBWW calls for the EC to stop exploitation in subcontracting chains

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us