Thousands rally against crippling austerity policies

In Spain, they marched through the capital Madrid banging pots and pans.

Protesters blocked part of the Castellana boulevard carrying placards saying: "We don't owe, we won't pay."

Demonstrator Maria Costa, a civil servant, said: "None of us pushed the banks to lend huge sums of money to greedy property speculators, yet we are being asked to pay for other's mistakes."

With unemployment at nearly 25 per cent, Spain has introduced harsh austerity measures in a desperate bid to lower its deficit and meet lenders' demands.

Spain has been granted a €100 billion (£81bn) loan by the eurozone to help its banks worst hit by failed speculation in the property market.

The country's economy is in a double-dip recession and is forecast to shrink by 1.5 per cent this year and 0. 6 per cent in 2013.

In neighbouring Portugal, thousands marched in the capital Lisbon and a number of other cities.

The government of Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho, which is pushing through public spending cuts to meet the demands of international creditors, was the main target of the protests.

"The troika and the government out," said one banner damning the European Union, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank.

"Portugal has had enough of being robbed and humiliated," one leaflet read.

In a separate march, Portugal's main trade union the CGTP led several thousand marchers to the front of parliament, where deputies are expected to vote through a harsh austerity budget tomorrow.

"The government is hanging by a thread," CGTP leader Armenio Carlos said. "The quicker we cut it, the quicker the government will collapse."

In Braga, several hundred artists and others opposed to their government's cuts to the culture budget protested under a banner saying: "Without culture people become dogs."

Portugal received a €78bn (£63bn) bailout in May 2011.

In recent weeks, however, tens of thousands of Portuguese have marched in protest at the huge spending cuts demanded as a condition of the loan.

The trade unions have called a general strike for November 14.