Police block protest march in Madrid

Aug 4, 2011, 13:39 GMT

Madrid - Spain's 15-M protest movement, which criticizes unemployment and corruption, staged new rallies on Thursday, with hundreds of protesters trying to enter Madrid's central Puerta del Sol square.

Police and protective walls kept out the demonstrators, who were trying to 'take' the square for the third time within two days. Police advised tourists to visit other areas.

Police also prevented demonstrators from getting close to the parliament building. The protest march hampered traffic in the city centre.

'Our rights are being violated,' demonstrators chanted. Some of them linked the security measures with the upcoming visit of Pope Benedict XVI, who is due to arrive in Spain on August 18.

The protest march followed similar rallies by thousands of people, who also tried to enter the Puerta del Sol overnight and on Wednesday.

Occasional clashes with police were reported. Two people were detained overnight.

The square is a symbol for the 15-M, hundreds of whose members camped there for a month until mid-June. A few dozen protesters, who had remained there, were expelled by police peacefully on Tuesday.

The expulsion led to a new surge in protests which had quieted down in July.

Protest camps were set up at city squares around Spain after the 15-M erupted into headlines on May 15, when tens of thousands of people took to the streets.

'Politicians do not represent us and cannot go on as they have,' a young female demonstrator said early Thursday.

The movement is demanding an end to corruption and politicians' financial privileges, and to the influence of financial markets over politics.

The movement emerged largely as a consequence of Spain's 20-per-cent unemployment rate, the eurozone's highest. Protest rallies have prevented the evictions of dozens of families unable to pay mortgages.