Spain's protest challenge

In a square in Madrid's Salamanca neighborhood, several dozen people are crowded together, listening to a woman who is speaking through a megaphone. Occasionally, they raise both hands to show their support for a proposal and the megaphone is handed round the crowd over the course of a couple of hours. Next to the meeting, small children are playing and sometimes it's hard to hear exactly what is being debated.

"It's very difficult to make a direct democracy work, one that is not based on a majority but on looking for a consensus, and sometimes it can be very slow as a process, but I think it works," said Oscar ten Houten, a volunteer in Madrid for the May 15, or, as it is know in Spanish, the 15-M movement, which organizes these meetings and dozens more around the city.

These neighborhood assemblies, which are also being held across the country, seek to give a voice to citizens' hopes and concerns. Many of the issues raised are related to how the movement should proceed. They are also a key part of 15-M's attempt to take democracy into the streets.

Last month, during Spain's local election campaign, the movement caught the attention of Spaniards and much of the rest of the world. Thousands joined its peaceful sit-in protests and demonstrations against both the political system and an economic crisis that has seen unemployment soar to 21 percent.

Now that the elections are over, 15-M is trying to maintain its relevance and make a lasting impact on Spanish society and politics. Besides the neighborhood assemblies, it is also planning a series of demonstrations across Spain for June 19. But its aims stretch far into the future.

"The sit-ins are slowly disappearing and transforming into neighborhood assemblies," said Victor Sampedro, a political scientist and expert in social movements. "They are now trying to create a more participatory democracy, at the grass-roots level and from there, the movement could receive acknowledgement at an official level and be legitimized, allowing it to take part in the political process."

The movement's long-term aims

The movement's long-term objectives have included a major electoral reform to loosen the grip of the center-left Socialists and the center-right Popular Party on the political system, as well as greater separation of state powers, more transparency and less corruption.

But 15-M has already had an effect, by throwing into relief the weaknesses of Spanish politics, according to Fernando Vallespin, of Madrid's Autonoma University.

"This movement has been a breath of fresh air in our very boring political system," he said. "They might well affect how our parties relate to society, how they develop channels of communication with voters, particularly through the internet."

The governing Socialist Party already seems to have taken note of the recent upsurge in demand for more representative democracy. The party's newly selected candidate for general elections scheduled for next year, Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, has taken the unusual move of sounding out the concerns of Socialist Party militants at a series of question-and-answer sessions.

Clashing with the right

But in the wake of last month's local elections, the Socialists have been severely weakened and appear to be heading for defeat at the hands of the conservative Popular Party in next year's general elections. The Popular Party has expressed less sympathy for the protest movement than the Socialists and Vallespin warned that 15-M's demands for greater controls over economic and political powers could collide with a right-leaning government.

Sampedro agreed: "It's very likely we could see the kind of clash that we are seeing in Italy. There is a civic society that is demanding things like the separation of powers and accountability on the part of the political class and the political class itself seems to be installed in its own bunker."

Another difficulty for the movement is its decentralized structure, in which it has no visible leaders, but rather a rotating series of spokespersons. Also, its insistance on putting even relatively minor policies or decisions to a vote, in order to fulfill its pledge to be representative, can hinder its efficiency, said Vallespin.

"It takes them ages to decide on a very simple thing. In ordinary politics you have to decide straight away, or the very same moment a problem arises," he said. "Politics is very pragmatic and it ought to resolve problems. If it's through more democratic means, then all the better, but you can't have everything."

Author: Guy Hedgecoe, Madrid
Editor: Nicole Goebel