The “indignados” go home quietly

“Indignados quietly exit the public arena,” headlines La Croix, which reports on the expulsion of 20 anti-capitalist activists from the Occupy Movement, who had been camping in front of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt since October. The daily adds —

Ten months after it was set up, the disappearance of this bohemian enclave from an area of skyscrapers that house the world’s largest banks will herald the end of the Occupy phenomenon in Europe.

The expulsion of Frankfurt’s indignados has come in the wake of the break-up of similar protest camps in London (February 2012), Paris (December 2011) and Madrid (June), points out the French daily. Although “here and there […], there are some remaining tents,” the movement that began last year, and which deplores “the power of capitalism, money and banks […] has failed to have an impact,” in Europe, argues La Croix, which notably blames the loss of momentum on “the lack of an overall coordinating strategy.”

The daily notes that the decline of the movement has come at a time when “the conditions that gave birth to the Occupy protests still prevail.” The German political scientist, Tadzio Müller, believes: “Other movements will emerge,” but adds that the question of “where to construct social power” remains unanswered.