Every weekend for as long as anyone can remember, young Spaniards have congregated in Madrid's central squares after midnight for the botellon, an all-night long street party. On some nights, the authorities estimate that up to 200,000 young people gather out in the open, smoking dope and drinking stupendous amounts of cheap alcohol. (Sounds like a good idea for the Queen's Jubilee.)

But not any more they don't. The middle-class residents have complained and Madrid's right-wing mayor has decided to crack down. This weekend, an army of riot police will be deployed in the capital to keep the revellers off the streets. However, this is likely to be easier said than done - last weekend's attempt to shut down the protests against the Munich Security Conference ended in an ignominious fiasco for the police.

What does all this have to do with politics, I hear you ask? The answer is that for many young Spanish people, this weekend will be the first time that they have come into contact with the repressive forces of the state. In the UK, the criminalisation of the outdoor "rave" scene in 1997 brought a whole generation of young clubbers into contact with more politicised communities of road protestors and urban guerrillas. Thus "Reclaim the Streets" and a host of anti-corporate collectives were born.

Will the same thing now happen in Spain, the country that currently holds the EU presidency, and where major anti-capitalist protests are planned for Barcelona (15-16 March) and Seville (21-22 June)? I would be interested in hearing from people who know more about the political situation in Spain than I do . . .