Anti-Austerity Protest in Lisbon

Seems there were anti-austerity protest marches sponsored by trade unions in the southern part of Europe today - Spain, Italy, Greece, and Portugal (also in Paris and Lille but it seems not elsewhere). We learned this from The Guardian after getting home.

We knew it in the first instance from being caught in the demonstration traffic in Lisbon. The other end of town from where we're staying has some good museums, and today we went out there. We had some bad luck yesterday with the tram failing to appear, so this morning when it didn't show we just hopped a cab. Fine.

At 4 pm we piled into another cab to go home, and guess what? Standstill traffic, some main streets closed off. A tidal wave of cars, trucks, cabs, ambulances, tuktuks, motorcycles all trying to get into the same narrow streets. Our lady cab driver became less ladylike. We spent a lot of time breathing exhaust fumes. The cab rocked 3" forward, stop, 3" forward, wait, and so forth. It took a long time.

So we didn't know the problem. But eventually we saw the crowds, the flags. To our interest, many of the demonstrators were middle-aged or older.

Really, we didn't quite know if the demonstration was just getting underway, or just over, or in the process of marching from one place to another. There was movement. Our driver turned on the radio, but got no information, only music. We don't speak Portuguese anyway; she doesn't speak English. She called it a "manifestao." 

Finally, by going well north (or northwest, as Lisbon is laid out on a northwest/southeast axis) she managed to get around the crowds and get us home. It took 3 times as long to come home, as going out had taken (or longer).

We think that Lisbon is still suffering from the crash of 2007. In our neighborhood, lots of empty storefronts. Lots of construction begun but not finished. Lots of seemingly idle working-age people. In the local Mini-Precu (a grocery), people are very careful about their change. At the filling station, a guy whose job is to fill your tank for you, a sort of make-work position. Streets are not very clean or in very good repair. People are dressed in whatever. Building facades would really like some cleaning and repair. The shopping center closest to here is very marginal. 

Well, could be we just landed in an old, downmarket, non-gentrified area. There are more upscale areas. We found ourselves in one yesterday, very busy and pleasant, though so hilly I thought I'd perish from walking up and down. And the museum area has a busy shopping street nearby. Our sample of Lisbon is not scientific. 

Portugal has a rather weak economy, as described in Wikipedia (quoting from The Economist and other sources). There's some corruption and occupational training is most suitable to industrial production. The bureaucracy is notably inefficient and slow. In 2013 unemployment reached above 17%, but now it's down to 12%. The country is very dependent on tourism for income. It's undergoing austerity as recommended by the EU and IMF. So these are not great signs.

Portugal had an election recently in which they chose against austerity, Julianne reminds me. The new government came into power only 3 days ago. It's considered a blow to German-dominated European fiscal policy, even though the new prime minister vows he won't try the Greek defiance route. It's considered a fragile government just now. See this column by Evans-Pritchard in The Guardian.

So being only a tourist and no expert, I have to say our perspective on Portugal has darkened just a little because of seeing this suffering and dissatisfaction. A big outcome from a traffic jam!

by Nancy