"We're not animals but dogs live better than us," sighs Lidia Arribas, who lives without electricity in a vast slum near Madrid where temperatures hit historic lows this week.

Behind the walls of a former tobacco factory, about 100 people excitedly discuss their plans for Madrid city hall, which from Saturday will be run by protesters from the "Indignados" (Outraged) movement, in an unprecedented experience for Spain.

The meeting was held on a hot afternoon at the Tabacalera -- a self-run cultural center covered in street art in Lavapies, a scruffy Madrid neighborhood that is a meeting point for "Indignados" activists.

Leftist activists from the Indignados (Outraged) protest movement that grew out of Spain's economic crisis took charge Saturday of city halls in Madrid and Barcelona, after thrashing the ruling conservatives in local elections.

Former judge Manuela Carmena, a communist in her youth, was sworn in as mayor of the Spanish capital early on Saturday, while 41-year-old activist Ada Colau was set to become Barcelona's first female mayor later in the afternoon.

Exit polls in Spain's local elections Sunday gave the "Indignado" protest movement a possible lead in a tight race for control of Madrid and Barcelona against governing conservative parties.

A poll by TNS Demoscopia put the protest movement slightly ahead in Madrid and Barcelona, while another by GAD3 put them slightly behind but still breaking the ruling parties' majorities.

French Islamist gunman Amedy Coulibaly spent three days in Madrid before last week's Paris attacks, with Spanish police now investigating whether he had a support cell there, a newspaper said Thursday.

He was in Madrid between December 30 and January 2 with another person who has not yet been identified, Barcelona-based daily newspaper La Vanguardia reported.

Police evacuated a busy metro and commuter railway station in Madrid on Thursday during the evening rush hour after a suspicious package was found that was later determined not to be dangerous, a police spokeswoman said.

The Nuevos Ministerios station, which serves three lines of Madrid's metro system as well as six regional commuter railway lines, was closed just before 6.00 pm (1700 GMT) after the package was located at one of its entrances, the spokeswoman said.

Madrid's Atocha station, the scene of the worst terror attack in Spanish history, was evacuated Friday after a false alert when a man threatened to blow himself up.

Police said a man claiming to be carrying a bomb in his backpack was arrested, but nothing was found. 

Aisha has lived all her life in one neighborhood in Spain's African territory of Ceuta, but now she is willing to move -- even to the war zone of Syria.

"I would go and live with my family in the Islamic State in Syria, and if my husband died there in combat, I would accept it," said the mother-of-four, dressed in a black hijab, who asked for her real name to be concealed.

Spain's proposed new public security law, which introduces hefty fines for unauthorized protests and allows for the summary expulsion of migrants that try to enter the country illegally, has sparked fierce opposition from human rights activists.

The lower house of parliament approved the law -- dubbed the "Ley Mordaza" or "Gag Law" by its critics -- on Thursday with the votes of the ruling conservative Popular Party which has a majority in the assembly. All opposition parties voted against the bill.

Spain's interior minister warned in an interview published Sunday there was a "real" risk that Catalan government's push for independence could degenerate into violence.

"A process of these characteristics, by its very nature, generates radicalism. And all radicalism, in and of itself, is negative," Jorge Fernandez Diaz told conservative daily newspaper ABC.