Spanish interior minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz yesterday announced in Congress planned reforms that would introduce harsh new punishments for those involved in organising street protests that "seriously disturb the public peace". A minimum jail term of two years could be imposed on those found guilty of instigating and carrying out violent acts of protest, and organising such demonstrations through social networks would carry the same penalty as involvement in a criminal organisation.
Even more alarmingly, acts of "passive resistance" will also carry harsher punishments under the proposed legislation, and it will be an offence, said Mr Diaz, to "breach authority using mass active or passive resistance against security forces and to include as a crime of assault any threatening or intimidating behaviour". Attempts to disrupt public services, such as the recent blockades of bus and train stations by Spanish protestors during a general strike on March 29th, would also be treated as a crime.
We can expect to see such legislation enacted across the Western world, as governments prepare for the unrest that is inevitably going to spread and intensify as living standards plummet, due to the theft and corruption of the political and financial elite. As unemployment rises, salaries and benefits are slashed, and living costs soar - all to fuel the insatiable greed of a minority of the already obscenely wealthy - it is perfectly obvious that the working and middle classes of the supposedly free and democratic West are going to start rebelling en masse. Indeed, as detailed in a previous article, widespread dissent is actually factored into the plans of those running such globalist financial organisations as the IMF and World Bank.