A week after Greece elected its ally Syriza, tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Madrid in what called the "March for Change" on Saturday in support of new anti-austerity party Podemos. With the party topping opinion polls in the run up to elections later this year, protesters chanted "Yes we can!" as they made their way from Madrid city hall to the central Puerta del Sol square. Many waved blue and white Greek flags and red and white Syriza flags or held signs reading "The change is now" and "Together we can". Podemos said 260 buses brought supporters to the capital from across Spain for the "March for Change", while hundreds of locals signed on to host travellers. Podemos, which means "We Can", was formed just a year ago, but produced a major shock by winning five seats in elections for the European Parliament in May. "The wind of change is starting to blow in Europe," Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias said in both Greek and Spanish at the start of his address to the crowd at the end of the march. "We dream but we take our dream seriously. More has been done in Greece in six days than many governments did in years." Iglesias, a 36-year-old pony-tailed former university professor, appeared alongside Syriza's Alexis Tsipras to publicly support him during his campaign. Syriza beat mainstream Greek parties by pledging to end austerity and corruption, as Podemos aims to do in Spain's general election due in November. Podemos wants to prevent profitable companies from firing people, promote a fully state-controlled health care system and enact a "significant" minimum-wage hike. Like Syriza, Podemos has found considerable popular support by rejecting austerity programmes adopted to try to lift the countries out of deep economic crisis and targetting corruption. The party has struck a chord with Spaniards enraged by a string of corruption scandals, as well as public spending cuts imposed by the conservative ruling party and previously by the Socialists after the economic crisis erupted in 2008. Spain has now officially exited recession -- the country's economy grew by 1.4 percent last year, according to provisional data released Friday -- but nearly one in four workers is still unemployed. Salaries for many people have dropped and the number of workers on low-paid short-term contracts has soared. Podemos has overtaken the mainstream opposition Socialist Party in several opinion polls, and in some has topped the list ahead of the conservative ruling People's Party (PP). The Socialists and the PP have ruled Spain alternately since the country returned to democracy after the death of the dictator Francisco Franco in 1975. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has warned Spaniards not to "play Russian roulette" by supporting Podemos, which he said "promises the moon and the sun" but will not deliver. Speaking in Barcelona as the rally was taking place, Rajoy said radicalism was "unfortunately very much in fashion in our country" without mentioning Podemos directly. "I don't accept the gloomy Spain which some want to portray because they think that by doing so they will replace those who are governing and have had to face the most difficult crisis in decades. They will not succeed," he added. Protesters known as the Indignants filled that square for weeks in 2011 demanding political change at the height of Spain's economic crisis, and countless more protests followed. Podemos was already planning the rally before Syriza's victory in Greece's snap vote but party leaders hope the Greek party's success will boost turnout at its first major march, which comes ahead of a year-end general election in Spain. Meanwhile, more than 20,000 people took to the streets of Ireland Saturday to protest against the introduction of water charges as part of its bailout following the 2008 financial crisis. In Dublin, several thousand people turned out to protest while thousands more joined demonstrations in other cities including Galway on the west coast. Dublin committed to charging households for water as part of its EU-IMF bailout, announced in 2010, but opposition against the fees has surged ahead of the first bills being sent out in April. Ireland exited its bailout a year ago and is forecast to be the fastest-growing economy in the EU for 2014 and this year but unemployment remains well above ten percent. In November, Prime Minister Enda Kenny's coalition government, which came to power in 2011, slashed the charges in the wake of the protests, but opposition remains. Protestors in the Irish capital chanted: "No way, we won't pay" and "The banks got bailed out, we got sold out." Others carried posters calling for Kenny to resign. Under the old system, water was paid for through general taxation and services were operated by local authorities. A spokesperson for the minister of the environment, Alan Kelly, who is spearheading the changes, said there would be "absolutely no change in the government's position." "We have listened to people's concerns and addressed them and people have certainty, clarity and affordability for charges," he added.
