Madrid (CNN) -- Protesters dismantled a sprawling tent camp in Madrid's central Puerta del Sol plaza on Sunday, nearly a month after it sparked large nationwide demonstrations and similar encampments in other cities to demand changes in Spain's political and economic system.
The Madrid camp "in its day was emblematic, the flame that set the movement afire. Now we must go another way. This is just the beginning of the citizen movement," Juan Lopez, a spokesman for the May 15 movement of protests, told CNN on Sunday by phone during his visit to Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Across Spain, a series of citizens groups, including one called Real Democracy Now, used social media networks like Facebook to call for protests on May 15. The large response seemed to surprise even the organizers, as tens of thousands of people turned out in Madrid, Barcelona and other cities.
Protesters demonstrated against Spain's deep economic crisis and 21% unemployment rate. The crowds were dominated by young people, but also included retirees and families with young children. Demonstrators had a long and varied list of demands, but an underlying current was a call for change in Spain's political and economic system, to make it -- according to the protesters -- more democratic.
In the following days, hundreds decided to pursue their demonstrations by camping out in Madrid's Puerta del Sol, and other tent camps quickly sprang up in the most emblematic plazas in more than a dozen other cities, such as Barcelona's Plaza de Catalunya.
The movement gained force, with daily demonstrations involving thousands of people nationwide, in the run-up to May 22 municipal and regional elections. The conservative Popular Party was the big winner in that vote and now is poised, many analysts say, to win national parliamentary elections over the ruling Socialists. Those elections are expected no later than next March.
But the protesters have said repeatedly that neither of the two main parties represents their interests. Several protesters told CNN they voted for smaller parties which are farther left than the Socialists.
In recent weeks, there has been increasing pressure from political and business leaders for the Madrid encampment to dismantle. Nearby businesses say they have suffered heavy losses as a result of the protests.
"It's not sustainable to remain at Sol, with all the resources needed to keep it going," Lopez said of the encampment. "And we were occupying a public space that belongs to everyone."
The protesters, who make decisions through debate and hand-held votes in what are often hours-long public assemblies where it seems everyone gets a chance to speak, have decided to carry on their work with similar meetings and protests in Madrid neighborhoods.
"We're very satisfied that a spontaneous movement changed the political dialogue and brought people together," Lopez said.
In Barcelona, he added, protesters of the May 15 movement also have decided to leave the Plaza de Catalunya although there are reports that some other protesters had decided to remain. If they do, they don't represent the May 15 movement, he said.
Spanish media reports said similar but smaller encampments in at least eight other Spanish cities also have been dismantled by the protesters in recent days, but that in at least four other cities, including Valencia and Seville, the encampments remained. Lopez said he could not confirm those reports.
The May 15 movement has called for demonstrations throughout Spain on June 19 to protest against a series of economic measures in the European Union known as a "pact for the euro." EU governments hope it will promote competition to help pull various countries, like Spain, out of a debt crisis. But some protesters contend it could lead to more cutbacks in social services, salaries and pensions.
The protests of the May 15 movement have been largely peaceful, with police standing by. But there were scuffles, arrests and minor injuries at various flash points, including in Barcelona in late May when regional police moved in on grounds that the occupied plaza needed to be cleaned, only to find more protesters there soon afterward; and in Valencia this past week, when national police made some arrests during scuffles outside the regional parliament.
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