SPAIN: Hundreds of thousands - the numbers range from 400,000 "to over two million" according to the political leanings of those making the estimates - of Spaniards took to the streets of Madrid on Saturday night to protest at the government's plan to introduce a new education bill.
This is the third massive anti-government demonstration in Spain since the Socialists came to power 18 months ago, and the second - the other was the decision to legalise same-sex marriages last June - which has seen the Catholic Church joining demonstrators in opposing the government.
Each one has attracted crowds of thousands, many of them arriving in the capital by car, chartered bus and train and even flights from the Balearic and Canary Islands. Some 16 bishops, priests and nuns and leading members of the Popular Party (PP) joined the crowds in the cold and rain in the three-hour march through the city centre organised by the Episcopal Conference, the PP and dozens of Catholic family associations.
Education has always been a contentious issue between right and left in Spain. There have been no fewer than six different education bills since democracy was restored in 1978, but none of them has been a success.
The most controversial issue centres on religious teaching in schools. Conservative elements from the church, the opposition PP and Catholic families insist that religion should be a part of the regular curriculum while the government believes it should be voluntary.
Sister Carmen, a teacher in a Madrid school, was convinced that religion should be compulsory. "They want to make religious teaching an extrascholastic subject, but it should be an integral part of the curriculum," she said on Saturday night.
Education minister Maria Jesus San Segundo does not agree. "Religion should not condition the future of a student when they decide whether they want to become a mathematician, a doctor or a lawyer," she said.
Carlos Cortezo, a spokesman in Ms San Segundo's ministry, confirmed that the bill aims to give pupils and their parents a free choice.
"Under a 1979 agreement the right to a religious education is not only for Catholics, but also for evangelist, Islamic and Jewish faiths. If a pupil decides on one of those faiths, it is up to the school to arrange for a teacher. Other pupils will be offered alternative subjects such as ethics, general knowledge or ecology," he said.
Guardian service adds: A revisionist history book praising the former Spanish dictator, Gen Francisco Franco, whose regime liquidated tens of thousands of opponents over nearly 40 years, has shot to the top of the bestseller list in Spain.
"Franco should ... receive the gratitude and recognition of the majority of Spaniards," writes Pio Moa in Franco: an historical review.
"There was no alternative," Mr Moa says, claiming that the Republican democracy overthrown by Franco's rebel forces during the Spanish civil war had already failed beyond repair.
"He left a prosperous and politically moderate country. The last 30 years of democracy have been possible thanks to that."