Spanish protesters defy ban with all-night party

Spanish protesters furious over soaring unemployment remained camped in a Madrid square Saturday after all-night festivities in defiance of a 48-hour ban ahead of local elections.Some 25,000 people, according to Spanish media, crammed the central Puerta del Sol square, spilling onto surrounding streets, late on Friday to stage a brief silent protest, their hands in the air and many with their mouths covered by tape.

Thousands of protesters in Madrid furious over soaring unemployment staged a silent protest and then erupted in cheers of joy as a 48-hour ban on their demonstration took effect on Saturday."Now we are all illegal" and "the people united will never be defeated," were among the chants of the protesters who crammed Madrid's Puerta del Sol square and spilled onto side streets.

Spanish protesters at the vanguard of an anti-crisis movement spreading through Europe voted Sunday to keep their tent encampment in Madrid's central square of Puerta del Sol.They set no date for quitting.Thousands of people protesting political corruption, welfare cuts and soaring unemployment crowded the square and threw their hands up to agree overwhelmingly with the motion to stay and decide later on the duration.After the vote they chanted: "We are not going! We are not going!"

Protesters fuming over Spain's economic crisis and sky-high jobless rate camped in Madrid and across the country Wednesday to vent their anger ahead of weekend local elections.More than 1,000 demonstrators turned out in Madrid's central Puerta de Sol square on Tuesday night and knots of protesters remained the following morning, some vowing to stay until the vote.

Two months after they launched a movement against the economic crisis and soaring unemployment, Spain's so-called "indignant" protesters were converging on Madrid again on Saturday.Seven cross-country protest marches were set to reach the city's Puerto del Sol square Saturday evening on the eve of a demonstration through the streets of the Spanish capital.Protesters carrying sleeping bags and groundsheets set off from cities across the country at the end of June, including Barcelona, Malaga, Valencia and Bilbao, to applause from sympathisers.

Spaniards voted Sunday in local elections set to crush the ruling Socialists even as protesters fuming over mass unemployment defied a ban on their swelling movement.Demonstrators, who blame mainstream politicians for a jobless rate of more than 21 percent, refused to budge from a makeshift plastic-covered camp in central Madrid's Puerta del Sol square.The electoral impact of the protests, which have brought tens of thousands onto the streets since May 15, including an estimated 60,000 nationwide on the eve of the election, was difficult to gauge.