By María Carrión (Democracy Now!)

Coverage of the anti-austerity protests going on at the Spanish Parliament on September 25th, a massive civil desobedience action "to rescue the Congress from the abduction of the financial markets".

The Spanish protests stemmed from Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s plans to unveil further austerity measures on Thursday. According to Carrion, for weeks the government has been unveiling "a series of new measures that affect primarily education and health and salaries and the welfare of Spanish people." Many protestors cited a loss of confidence in elected leaders as another source of discontent. Thousands of civilians surrounded the Parliament, one of whom pleaded with the government to "Bail us out. Don’t cut education. Don’t cut healthcare."

After hours of protest, police in riot gear charged against demonstrators with batons and fired rubber bullets into the crowd. A peaceful crowd of protestors came back on the following day and are planning to demonstrate again next Saturday.

[This article was originally published on Democracy Now!]