Thousands of people gathered in Madrid on Tuesday in a new protest against the Spanish government's austerity policies, while parliament debated a draconian draft budget for 2013, dpa reported.
Demonstrators displayed placards with the word "No," and slammed the budget as creating "oppression and misery." Police prevented them from surrounding the parliament building.
The rally was smaller and more peaceful than previous ones. Hundreds of people also demonstrated in Cartagena in the south-east.
The budget was practically certain to be passed by parliament, where Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's conservatives have an absolute majority.
Earlier on Tuesday, Spain successfully raised 3.53 billion euros (4.6 billion dollars) in a short-term bond auction, partly at slightly higher interest rates.
Three-month bonds had a yield of 1.45 per cent, up from 1.25 per cent in the previous auction. Six-month bonds, by contrast, fetched a yield of 2.1 per cent, down from 2.3 per cent.
Analysts downplayed the importance of the interest rate rise, attributing it partly to an announcement by the ratings agency Moody's that it had downgraded the credit ratings of five of Spain's 17 semi-autonomous regions by one or two notches.
The regions were Andalusia, Extremadura, Castile La Mancha, Catalonia and Murcia. The credit ratings of five other regions were left untouched.
The spread measuring the difference between German and Spanish 10-year bonds rose above 400 basis points for the first time in a week.
The Bank of Spain, meanwhile, said the economy had remained in recession in the third quarter, contracting by 0.4 per cent for a second quarter in a row.
Domestic consumption, however, was down 1.2 per cent, shrinking slightly less than in the second quarter.