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Madrid (CNN) -- Spanish youths on Saturday protested across the country for a seventh day over the economic crisis, in defiance of a 48-hour ban ahead of local elections. Thousands of people crammed into the center of Madrid, as well as many other cities, angry over soaring unemployment rates.
"We intend to continue, because this is not about Sunday's elections it's about social cutbacks," Carmen Sanchez, a spokeswoman for the protesters in Madrid's Puerta del Sol square, told Agence-France Presse.
As a ban ordered by Spain's election commission took effect at the chimes of midnight, the protesters chanted: "Now we are all illegal" and "the people united will never be defeated," according to the agency.
The supreme court's decision to overturn an appeal against the ban came two days ahead of local and regional elections that are scheduled across the Iberian nation. The ruling meant no such protests could legally occur on Saturday.
This follows a ruling from late Thursday, when Spain's electoral board said the demonstrations, organized largely via social media networks, would be banned on Saturday. That day is supposed to be a "day of reflection" for voters -- the idea being that there should be no campaigning immediately preceding Sunday's balloting -- the board said.
The government of the ruling Socialist Party appear to have decided -- so far --that the police should keep a safe distance, as they did last Wednesday when a demonstration was banned but went ahead anyway. Socialist politicians are widely expected to suffer deep losses to the conservatives, according to recent polls.
Economist Fernando Fernandez of the IE Business School predicted that police would try to peacefully seal off Puerta del Sol plaza to prevent more demonstrators from arriving, and let those in the plaza eventually leave.
"The government does not want to have any sort of violence taking place the day prior to the elections. This would have a very large political cost and electoral cost," Fernandez told CNN.
"People want to participate. This is a fiesta of democracy," Sofia de Roa, another spokeswoman for the protesters, told CNN.
Demonstrators are protesting Spain's 21% unemployment rate, the highest in the euro zone, and a record 4.9 million people who are out of work. The jobless rate for youth -- those between ages 15 and 24 -- is 42%.
Protesters say that many temporary labor contracts offer few or no job benefits. In addition, some are protesting against the political and financial establishment that they say is to blame.
The protests appear to have gained momentum in the closing days of the campaign. They have captured considerable news media coverage, and all major parties have acknowledged them.
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said in an interview with SER radio on Friday that voters ultimately will decide whether and how much change will be made.
On Sunday, voters in Spain's 8,000 cities and towns will elect mayors, along with 13 out of 17 regional presidents and parliaments. The results are expected to be a bellwether for national elections, which must happen no later than March 2012.
De Roa, a journalist who works for a university communications office, said protester assemblies, their ad hoc decision-making bodies, have called for a demonstration on Saturday night despite the no-campaigning tradition on the eve of a Spanish election.
She said the protests also are expected to continue nightly, even after the elections.
"We're not leaving until there's a change," she said, standing amid thousands of protesters in Madrid's emblematic central square. "Until a politician commits to implementing the proposals here."
Beatriz Elosegui, a government worker, said Thursday she had been to several protests since they started on Sunday. Her husband, an advertising executive, is out of work and her son is about to finish his training to become an electrician but has few job prospects, she said.
Two young men who appeared to be the only ones wearing suits and ties in the crowd said they showed up Thursday for the first time. Both said they work as accountants, and one, Andres Maldonado, complained of tight credit that is squeezing homeowners and small businesses. He said government efforts to inject liquidity into the financial system are not working.
Besides Madrid, there were also protests in Barcelona, Valencia and other cities in Spain. Up to a few hundred protesters have camped out in central squares each night, but the main protests are in the evening.