"We don't want to remove the politicians - we want them to come down to street level"

Fabio Gándara and Jon Aguirre's cell phones ring and ring during the interview. Most of the calls are from journalists, but a few are from colleagues in Democracia Real Ya, or Real Democracy Now, the grassroots movement that organized last Sunday's mass protest against Spain's political and economic situation. Their ability to bring 20,000 people out in Madrid alone, with no help from political parties or unions, has caught the world's attention.

Gándara, 26, is a law graduate with a master's degree in urban-planning law. He is currently unemployed and studying for a state examination in the hopes of landing a public-sector job. Aguirre, the other spokesman for the group, is working on a final project to complete his degree in architecture.

Both men admit they're tired, although they don't look it when they start discussing the events of the last few days. "We can't help but notice the use of clichés, especially by those who used to complain that Spanish society is apathetic," says Gándara. "Now, any initiative that's described as a protest movement is considered public enemy number one," adds Aguirre.

Although they complain about Spain's two-party system, Gándara and Aguirre underscore the fact that they are not trying to delegitimize the act of voting, and actually encourage people to do so in good faith in Sunday's regional and municipal elections. "We are neither anarchists nor working against the system; we're just ordinary people," says Gándara. "The real anti-system people are the sharks who ripped the financial system to shreds," says Aguirre.

Regarding the May 15 demonstration that sparked the Madrid camp-out, Aguirre and Gándara feel that all they did was light the fuse of a feeling of dissatisfaction that was there all the time. Their message? That civil society must have a greater presence in politics, and for politicians to no longer be able to work "with a blank check."

"We're talking about participatory democracy at the local level, about participatory budgets and referendums," says Gándara. "We want politicians to be managers of citizen demands," adds Aguirre. "We don't want to remove the politicians ? we want them to come down to street level."