Source: OT
LISBON Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of Lisbon
and other Portuguese cities on Saturday to protest against the
government’s austerity measures aimed at rescuing the debt-hit eurozone
nation.
The rallies were organised by a non-political movement which claimed
500,000 marched in the country’s capital and another 400,000 in the main
northern city of Porto. There have been no official estimates of the
crowds.
But the mood of the crowd was clearly political, calling for new
elections with banners declaring “Portugal to the polls!” and “If you
fall asleep in a democracy, you wake up in a dictatorship”.
Another banner showed a picture of centre-right Prime Minister Pedro
Passos Coelho with the caption “Today I am in the street, tomorrow it
will be you.”
Portugal was granted a financial rescue package worth 78 billion
euros ($103 billion) in May 2011, in exchange for a pledge to straighten
out its finances via austerity measures and economic reforms.
Lisbon has to reduce its public deficit to 4.5 per cent of GDP this
year, but the government recently conceded it may be impossible for it
to reach that target given the continued recession.
Finance Minister Vitor Gaspar has said the economy is expected to
contract around two per cent this year, double an earlier forecast.
The organisers of Saturday’s march are galvanised by their opposition
to the so-called troika of public creditors — the European Union, the
European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund — who bailed
out Portugal.
“This demonstration is a clear sign that ‘the troika’ and the
government are not wanted in this country,” said Joao Semedo, the leader
of a far-left bloc.
The march included groups of teachers, healthcare workers and pensioners who have been especially hard hit by the budget cuts.
After cutting salaries and pension benefits in 2012, the government
this year has declared a general tax increase and expects to impose
further cuts of some four billion euros.
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