Firemen stand face to face with a riot police cordon near the Parliament during a demonstration with thousands of people protesting against the Spanish government's latest austerity measures outside the Education and Science Ministry, in Madrid, on July 19, 2012. Several hundred government workers joined the protest after conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced, on July 13, the latest measures to lower Spain's deficit, a 65-billion-euro (80 billion USD) austerity package involving among other things an increase in the VAT (TVA) tax and cuts in unemployment benefits. (© Pablo Blazquez)