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Is it possible to organize a demonstration without actual people? Rosalyn Deutsche describes how, from the standpoint of democracy, the space of politics is "a discursively constructed site" in which laws delimit its "proper usage."1 Laws dictate the structure of public space, positioning the body and controlling its relation to the political community. In Spain, where representative democracy is only thirty-seven years old, the government has been containing social dissidents by means of strategic laws with the noble excuse of protecting citizens' security. In 2015, after the economic crisis of 2008 reawakened the old phantoms of Francisco Franco's dictatorship, activists organized a protest with holographic projections of protestors at the doors of the Parliament.
The protest had its origin in the anti-austerity 15-M movement that began in spring 2011. The 15-M, also known in Europe as "The Spanish Revolution," is a grassroots movement that emerged mainly via social media. The protests started on May 15, 2011, following the call from Democracia Real Ta (Real Democracy Now) and other social organizations such as Juventud Sin Futuro (Youth Without a Future), No Les Votes (Don't Vote for Them), and Anonymous. Each of the above organizations focuses on specific issues, such as the precarious situation of youth, the use of electoral abstinence as a political weapon against politicians, and online freedom of expression. But all of them rejected the so-called democratic system in Spain and the austerity policies imposed by the government.
The 15-M movement emerged in a moment of deep social discontent resulting from the prolonged economic crisis in Spain. At the time, Spain had the highest unemployment rate in the European Union-approximately twenty-one percent overall and forty-six percent youth unemployment2-with wage stagnation, increasing mortgage rates, job insecurity, credit restriction, and numerous structural adjustment policies that affected the welfare state. The situation was exacerbated by the direct government support of financial institutions and widespread corruption among politicians. The protesters condemned the reductive Spanish electoral system that favors major political parties and promotes the bipartisan rule of the Spanish Socialist Worker's Party (PSOE) and the Popular Party (PP). They argued that the two political parties did not represent citizens' interests, but rather those of private economic interests and corporations. By reactivating public space with protests, the 15-M expressed...