Catalan MPs helicopter into parliament

"Outrageous," headlines La Vanguardia, in the wake of a Barcelona protest that blocked access to the Catalonian regional parliament, which was scheduled to hold a debate on budgetary cuts. Several hundred Angry Ones — "Indignados" in Spanish — prevented MPs, some of whom were physically attacked and insulted, from entering the building. Helicopters and police vans had to be deployed to enable them to take their seats. As the day went on, there were a number of violent skirmishes with police. This is an "attack on democracy in Catalonia," remarks the outraged Catalan daily, "the worst attack on a parliament since 23-F:” the botched coup attempt of 23 February 1981. La Vanguardia argues that the 15-M movement expresses "a common sense of unease prompted by the dysfunction of democracy and a desire for regeneration," however, "the eruption of the Angry Ones has increasingly been marked by anti-political and populist messages, which do not acknowledge any representative role for state institutions" — an attitude that "brings to mind the worst aspects 20th-century totalitarianism," the Barcelona daily affirms.