Hundreds of thousands protested in Portugal Saturday against austerity measures ahead of next week's talks with international creditors, with unions vowing to keep up the pressure.
In the rally described as one of the country's biggest in three decades many were brandishing banners such as "The struggle continues" and "No to exploitation, no to inequality, no to impoverishment."
"The bailout is good for the creditors who get billions in interest and commissions, good for the banks ... But the measures are really bad for the workers, youths, pensioners, for 2.7 million Portuguese on the verge of poverty and those already below the poverty line," Armenio Carlos, head of the country's largest union, CGTP, told supporters as the crowd chanted: "IMF doesn't call the shots here!"
"They are stealing the salaries and the rights we had. They are stealing from the poor to give to the rich. I'm poor and I have to protest. The more we stay quiet, the more they rob," said Jorge, one of the protesters in his twenties.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/11/portugal-protest-idUSL5E8DB0UP20120211
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