Two thirds of people support 15-M in Spain.

DESPITE occasional violence, most Spaniards regard the ‘Indignados’ of the 15-M movement with benevolence. At the beginning of this month, 66 per cent of those questioned for a Metroscopia opinion poll supported the collective.

Almost a month later, this had dropped slightly, but only to 64 per cent. Most appreciated that the Indignados themselves had distanced themselves from violent incidents like the attempted blockade of the Barcelona regional parliament.

A total of 71 per cent of those asked saw 15-M as a peaceful movement which wanted to revitalise democracy, although some suspected it was more radical. They were anti-system, 17 per cent claimed, and wanted to substitute the present system with something else. Again, those who agreed with the changes called for by the Indignados had dropped slightly, from the 81 per cent at the beginning of the month to 79 per cent now.

One of the changes called for by 15-M was the exclusion of politicians implicated in corruption cases from the parties’ voting lists and this was supported by 89 per cent of those answering the survey.

There was equal backing for not allowing mass redundancies by companies making profits.  Most agreed that banks should repay public money used to bail them out during the economic crisis and also accept repossession of a property instead of forcing mortgage defaulters to continue payments.

But it was not all good news for the 15-M movement or their much-chanted slogan “They call it democracy but it isn’t.”

Two thirds of those answering Metroscopia said they believed that people were more unhappy with the country’s politicians than the way democracy was organised inside Spain.

Photo credit: David Costalago Meruelo