Eviction Notices for the Bankers, Bailout for the Citizens

LaVanguardia.com is reporting that 3,000 protestors marched in Madrid, Spain yesterday from the Cuatro Caminos neighborhood to the Plaza de Castilla to make their displeasure with the BANKIA rescue package known.  The Indignados noisily reminded the public that 23 billion euros has already been promised to the failing financial institution, even though it has been accused of having falsified its accounts last year in the run-up to its IPO.  You can read the original article from La Vanguardia (in Spanish) here:

From the article...

Madrid. (EFECOM).- Más de 3.000 personas se han concentrado hoy ante la sede principal de Bankia en Madrid para protestar contra "la inyección de más de 23.000 millones de dinero público" en la entidad, tras una marcha pacífica que se ha saldado con un detenido.

Madrid. (EFECOM).- More than 3,000 people gathered today at the central headquarters of Bankia in Madrid to protest against "the injection of more than 23 billion in public money" into the institution, after a peaceful march in which there was one detention.

The Indignados have brought charges against the former BANKIA president (private prosecutions are permitted in Spain if the D.A. declines to bring charges of his own), after it was revealed that 2011 actually saw a 2.979 billion Euro loss, rather than the profit that BANKIA had previously claimed on the books.  And as if to add insult to injury, BANKIA accepted 4.5 billion Euros in government funds back in 2010, and has yet to pay any of it back.

So when will the misery end, and how to get out of the crisis?  This week the International Monetary Fund offered Spain some advice of its own -- increase taxes!  In this article the IMF suggests that Spain needs to raise its sales tax to cut the deficit -- a sales tax that currently stands at 18%. 

Every day, Indignados along with more and more ordinary Spaniards, are asking the banks and international organizations, "what more do you want from us, and when is it going to be enough for you?"