The main trade unions in Spain have held marches and demonstrations in fifty cities and towns across the country in protest against high unemployment.

The unions are demanding that the working week be cut to thirty-five hours to create more jobs.

The Spanish unemployment rate, at nineteen per cent, is one of the highest in the European Union.

The organisers said the monetary policies of the Spanish government had left tens of thousands of the country's most vulnerable people struggling to feed their families.

The Spanish government said its policies were working and thousands of new jobs were being created.