No Hay Pan Para Tanto Chorizo!

An even bigger turn out at Puerta del Sol tonight, with the surrounding streets filling with people too and the camp expanding to fit a bigger crèche and more sleeping space. People had also scaled the scaffolding on the building where the famous Tio Pepe sign used to be and unfurled more banners. When we arrived the TV crews were trying to make live broadcasts from a platform in the square. I say trying, because every time the reporter stood in front of the camera, a huge whistle and boo went up. It's not only the politicians this crowd are angry with it seems but the mainstream media. I even read that people were refusing to give interviews to Spanish TV.

Again, the atmosphere is just great. People stopping to read all the slogans posted in the camp, while others were furiously painting more. Among the chants of "Democracia! Real!", one of the most popular was "No hay pan para tanto chorizo!" - There isn't bread for so much chorizo! As well as the sausage, chorizo can also mean a kind of thief or scoundrel, so meaning not enough money for so many theives. Corruption in politics is another major issue in Spain, with some politicians likely to get re-elected tomorrow depsite being involved in scandals. There are homemade banners wherever you look, some personal, about not being able to get a job, some optimistic (`The future is now'), some not so ('No hay pan...'). Many also made a big deal about the fact that it was Sol where the protests were taking place, given it's symbolic status as the centre of Madrid, and the whole of Spain. There was also a samba band in full swing by the time I left and a party atmosphere, although with people still being urged not to drink.

The samba band highlighted by camera flashes

The best moment however, was while the crowd jeered the TV crews, the message to be quiet spread through the square, and for around a minute everyone was silent while shaking their hands in the air, the only noise the rustling of thousands of fingers. Then a whistle sounded and a great cheer went up over the whole square, a really incredible show of organisation and unity. I can't see the police even try and move the crowd tonight, and the police chief has said that they won't try to solve one problem by creating another, but I'm going to go back later and check what's happening. The only police presence this evening were 4 riot vans pressed right up against the Town Hall.

 

Meanwhile, although the crowds were spilling into the surrounding streets and  neighbouring squares, down the road in Plaza Mayor it was business as usual, with tourists eating expensive dinners and maybe a few more street performers than usual because they'd been pushed out of Sol. You wouldn't have known anything was even happening.