BEIJING, Feb. 24 (Xinhuanet) -- Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets of the Spanish capital, Madrid in an anti-austerity protest. The demonstrators aim to surround the parliament building. The protests come as a near five-year economic slump shows no sign of recovery and mass unemployment is on the rise. Organisers say this is the first time that ALL sectors hit by the economic crisis have demonstrated at the same time.

Tens of thousands march to protest deep austerity, the privatisation of public services and political corruption. They are have been angered by across the board public spending cuts.

Sergio Sosa, a demonstrator, said, "We are all very unhappy. We think the measures adopted by the Government are wrong, especially because they did not say they would adopt them before the elections."

Demonstrators gathered at Atocha’s rail station and Colon Square early in the afternoon. They then began marching towards the Spanish parliament building.

Several groups joined forces under a single slogan called "Citizens’ Tide, 23F," referring to the attack by armed forces on Spain’s parliament on the 23rd of February, 1981.

Among the crowd, representatives from public hospitals, schools, firefighters, miners and public servants could be seen shouting anti-austerity slogans.

Pilarsan Juan, a demonstrator, said, "We have to take to the streets to say that we don’t like what is going on. They are playing with our rights. They are taking away everything we had achieved, and we want public health, public social services. We want public education, we want to recover all the services that we we used to have."

In an effort to meet the European Union deficit targets, the Spanish govenrment has approved spending cuts across all sectors for 2013.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy pledged to pull Spain out of its painful recession without relaxing his drive to cut the country’s high public deficit.

The plan is unlikely to please voters, who are fed up with austerity, or Spain’s European partners, who did not get the new reform agenda they have been seeking from him.

Spain’s economy is expected to shrink in 2013 for a second year in a row.

Although exports have jumped, retail sales have fallen for 30 straight months as spending cuts and high unemployment hit domestic demand.

Spain’s unemployment rate is already over 25 percent and is expected to rise to around 27 percent.

(Source: CNTV.cn)