Sol protestors begin to plan new strategies

Two days after re-entering Puerta del Sol, the 15-M movement on Sunday began planning its next strategies to call attention to their demands for social and political change.

Organizers of the mass movement of citizens are preparing a series of demonstrations during Pope Benedict XVI's four-day visit to Madrid, beginning on August 18, for World Youth Day 2011. The 15-M protestors also announced on Sunday that they will hold a mass rally on Spain's southern coast near Trafalgar, Cádiz, on August 15, under the slogan: "Our possessions don't belong in the hands of politicians and bankers."

After three days of tense confrontations with police, who kicked out demonstrators from Puerta del Sol last Tuesday, the 15-M protestors re-entered Madrid's main square when law-enforcement authorities suddenly withdrew from the area on Friday. An estimated 5,000 people held a vigil that evening in the Spanish capital's main plaza to celebrate the "recapture" of their national soapbox.

After a joyous nighttime celebration, in which many raised placards and placed signs along the square, the movement's organizers said Sunday they have no intention of remaining in Puerta del Sol. "Our aim is not to remain in the plaza permanently, but only to hold meetings there," read a statement sent out to the media.

Why the police suddenly decided to move in on Tuesday morning to evict the more than two dozen campsites the movement had set up in late May was anyone's guess at the time. But according to government sources, City Hall had for weeks been trying to convince the Interior Ministry to organize a police intervention.

Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, then interior minister, had been against police action since the initial wave of protestors began setting up camp inside the square. "The police are here to resolve problems, not create them," he said at the time.

For more than a month, City Hall's attempts to convince the Interior Ministry to call in the riot police proved fruitless. The situation became so tense that Madrid Mayor Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón even threatened to take Rubalcaba to court for inaction, according to municipal sources. But he eventually got his way.

After Rubalcaba stepped down last month as interior chief as well as deputy prime minister to concentrate on his bid to run as the Socialist Party candidate in general elections in November, City Hall officials were able to convince his replacement, Antonio Camacho, to act. According to government sources, Camacho and Ruiz-Gallardón agreed that the offensive would take place in the early hours of Tuesday.

Madrid government officials estimate that businesses in the area lost some 60 million euros during the three days the police had the square cordoned off. Organizers of the 15-M movement now say all they want is to set up their information booth inside the square to let people know what their demands for political and social change consist of.