Spanish Song And Dance Over Bailout

Rather than rioting in the streets, the Spanish have found more creative ways of protesting about bank bailouts.

Throughout Spain, protests such as flamenco troupes bursting into a bank in Seville, and men dressed in prison outfits occupying a Galician lender have taken place – all in the name of objecting to costly state bailouts.

“You’ve changed, my friend, since you came in to money. I need two jobs to pay my mortgage,” a man sang to confused customers in a branch of Bankia. “You get in trouble and I get thrown out in the street,” he added as a flamenco dancer accompanied him.

Bankia received a bailout in May of approximately €23.5bn; and while the biggest target, it is not the only one. Members of the over-60s protest group “yayoflautas” – a name combining an affectionate term for grandfather with a derogatory term for street people – occupied branches of Deutsche Bank throughout Spain, and the German consulate in Barcelona.

“Today all the yayoflautas have occupied part of German land, the bankers’ bit,” the group said on Twitter.

“We want to add a bit of colour to Spanish politics,” said Ovidio Bustillo, an activist with the group. “Democracy in Spain needs a deep clean.”

The protests are the latest examples of Spain’s unorthodox approach to protesting, and follow March’s protest where Madrid’s sex workers began denying bankers their services until, in the words of one escort, they fulfil their “responsibility to society”.