It's been over four months since Angel Vadillo began camping out in an old van in front of Spain's Ministry Industry on April 10. For the last two of those months, he hasn't eaten. His van is spare, decorated only with a picture of his one-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter. Aside from that, he only has a thin mattress, a full book shelf, a laptop and a mobile phone, both of which he charges with solar power.

Indeed, it is solar power that kicked off Vadillo's unusual protest in the first place. In January, Spanish Industry Minister José Manuel Soria cut all subsidies for new projects relating to renewable energies.

Vadillo is the mayor of Alburquerque, a municipality with a population of 5,500 in Extremadura in the west of Spain. For the last two decades, Alburquerque has staked its future on solar energy, and five new facilities with a capacity of 250 megawatts had been planned prior to the subsidy cuts. Now, those plans have been shelved: "That means that we will lose some 850 jobs," says Vadillo. It is estimated that the measure will cost a total of 10,000 jobs across the country.