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© UnknownDemonstrators in Madrid shout slogans outside the French Embassy during a protest in support of rallies in Paris.
The French consulate in Barcelona has been forced to close its doors after about 20 protesters of the M-15 movement prevented the staff from entering the building.

The protesters said on Monday they were acting in solidarity with the French protesters people who called for an end to corruption and unemployment, and were dispersed by police from Place de la Bastille in Paris over the weekend.

Spanish protesters have been demonstrating against the government's austerity measures and growing unemployment rate since mid-May.

They have vowed to stay at Madrid's central Puerta del Sol square until the demands of the people are acknowledged.

The massive protests came after the government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero introduced a slew of drastic austerity measures.

The measures include the cutting of civil servant wages, as part of its plans to curb the budget deficit from 11 percent a year earlier to within three percent of the GDP, a limit set by the European Union by 2013.

Spain's M-15 movement has inspired other European countries as well.

Hundreds of Parisians on Sunday took part in a protest rally at the Bastille Square, calling for a popular democratic uprising among Europeans, while some 20,000 Greek protesters gathered near the parliament building in Athens with the same call.

French protesters also camped out in the cities of Toulouse and Bayonne to express their opposition to the rising unemployment rate and corruption in the country.

Greek protesters have been also staging rallies against the government's tight austerity measures imposed to rid the country of its debt of EUR 330 billion (USD 467 billion). Greece received an international bailout package of EUR 110 billion (USD 157 billion) last year.