The nature of the current political (r)evolutions

One of the most striking pictures of 2012 is the one that shows the Spanish Parliament protected by a security fence and dozens of policemen.

The divide between politicians and citizens is larger than ever. There is a deep resentment about how they are dealing with the crisis and the unfairness of the adjustments - in Portugal, for example, the president has even submitted the latest budget to the courts because he has requested confirmation of its constitutionality.

Drastic pay cuts in the public sector - remember, not only the  employee at the ministry desk but also the doctor, the teacher and the tax fraud investigator- and privatisation of public services to a larger of lesser degree is also being questioned and it is raising concerns among all citizens, no matter who they voted for. The same is happening with pensions.

In addition, this is taking place in the context of a massive bailout of a large part of the financial system, which, no coincidence, in Spain was in their majority savings banks controlled by regional politicians.

To all this, we can add a strong nationalist push in Catalonia that is taking a lot of attention from the really relevant issues.

Without getting into whether there could have been other ways of tackling the crisis, the key question is the impact that these protests will have on our political system.