Thousands of people gathered in front of the Congress building in Madrid again last night to protest against government spending cuts.

The protest, which began at 5.30pm and ended at 10pm, was called to coincide with yesterday evening's debate of the general budgets for 2013, passed off without incident

The "occupy Congress" protest was the fourth organised by the 25-S protest group in the past month and drew over 5,000 participants according to the organisers (although the Madrid authorities put the figure closer to 2,000).

The barriers erected by the police to prevent the protestors from gaining access to the Congress building itself were quickly covered with posters and banners criticising the politicians for their mismanagement of the economy and lamenting the fact that the man in the street is paying for mistakes by the governement and the major financial institutions.

There were no reported clashes with the police and MPs were able to leave the Congress building without incident at the end of the debate.