Europe has seen continuous street protests following the introduction of severe austerity measures last year.

Now youths are out on the streets of Madrid, angry at their politicians for letting the economic crisis get this bad.

An estimated one in five people in Spain are unemployed. It is the worst rate in the European Union, which explains the protests and unrest on the streets of Madrid and beyond.

But with local elections on the cards, economics and politics seem to be on a collision course.

What exactly are the youths protesting? Is it just the economic crisis and the strict austerity measures that have come with it? Or is this turning political?

Inside Story, with presenter Kamahl Santamaria, discusses with Olga Munoz, one of the protesters in the Spanish capital; David Gareth Walters, a professor of Hispanic Studies from Swansea University in Cardiff; and Gustavo Aristegui, an opposition member of parliament from the Popular Party from Santander, in the north of Spain.

This episode of Inside Story aired from Saturday, May 21, 2011.