Anti-terror Demonstrations in Spain

On the day after the terrorist attacks in Madrid, the Spanish people came out in enormous numbers to demonstrate against the travesty. On March 12th, something like 11 million people, a quarter of the population, showed their solidarity and their resolve to oppose terrorism by coming out for peaceful gatherings in all the major cities. The demonstrations began at noon with a 15-minute work stoppage for a silent commiseration. Public figures including the prime minister invited people to gather in peaceful demonstrations. News reports indicated that 75% of the people in Zaragoza came out, and such extraordinary participation was evident in other cities. A widely published photo shows the wide streets and central squares of Madrid totally covered in dots of color -- the umbrellas of millions of people.

It is worth looking at the graphs for the previous day, when the attacks occurred. They show a strong negative trend that seems symbolically appropriate to the terrible negative event. In marked contrast, for this day of demonstrations, with people coming together to share their emotions and commitments, the trend is symbolically positive.

The formal analysis period was set for noon to midnight local time (11:00 to 23:00 GMT). During this time the trend is generally positive, with some extreme spikes, as can be seen in the following figure. The trend culminates in a marginally significant deviation, with a Chisquare of 43686 on 43200 df and p = 0.049.

Anti-terror 
Demonstrations in Spain


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