Protest

Spain Defies Protest Ban

Thousands camp out in Madrid square.

Mass protests have reached Spain, where 25,000 people took to the streets in demonstrations against the government's economic policies and high unemployment Saturday. The protest began six days ago as a sit-in by people frustrated with the country's 45 percent youth unemployment, but has since grown into a call for better living standards, a fairer system of democracy, and a stop to the socialist government's austerity plans. "They want to leave us without public health, without public education, half of our youth is unemployed, they have risen the age of our retirement as well," said one protester. Spain's electoral commission had ordered them to leave ahead of Sunday's elections, but when the midnight deadline struck, protesters cheered and police didn't move in.