2011 Portuguese protests

Geração à rasca (English analogously: generation in trouble or Lost Generation), or M12M ( Movimento 12 de Março ) ( dt: Movement of March 12 ), is the name of a movement that in 2011 a series of mass protests in Portugal initiated. The name is a pun on the term Geração rasca, the mid-1990s by the journalist Vicente Jorge Silva during the student protests against the then Education Minister Manuela Ferreira Leite was coined.

Protests

The protest movement, which describes itself as " a non-partisan, secular and peaceful ", is not reflected by political parties, trade unions or other institutions, but started by a call on the social network Facebook. It calls for the improvement of working conditions, especially for young qualified people. A manifesto, which was published on Facebook, called on to take part in a demonstration in Lisbon on March 12, 2011.

The demonstrators filled the Avenida da Liberdade in Lisbon. The protests were directed not only against the rising unemployment and poor working conditions, but also against a declining standard of living and drastic austerity measures of the government. According to estimates of the organizers took part in the rally in Lisbon 200000-300000 people. Other demonstrations took place with an estimated 80,000 people, Funchal, Ponta Delgada and Viseu in Porto. The Polícia de Segurança Pública went from 100,000 people in Lisbon and 60,000 in Porto from. The spontaneity of the demonstrations reminded media observers in the beginnings of unrest in Tunisia or Egypt.

The manifesto of the initiative was from a song by the band Deolinda Parva que sou entitled ( dt As I 'm stupid but ) influences. In it we read:

Que mundo tão parvo (What so stupid for a world ) Onde é preciso para ser escravo estudar ( Where you have to have studied to be a slave )

The band members did not participate in the protests, although they sympathize with the demonstrators.

Impetus in the protest movement after the Festival da Canção, the Portuguese finals for the Euro Vision Song Contest. The humorous Luta é Alegria A winning entry (Eng. The fight is joy) of comedy and music group Homens da Luta is based on revolutionary songs by Zeca Afonso, a prominent singers and composers of 1974, the Carnation Revolution mitauslöste.

Consequences of the protests

After the protests of the " Geração à rasca " and subsequent protests by the trade unions UGT and CGTP on March 19, the conservative Partido Social Democrata pulled their support for the savings and reduction programs of the Portuguese minority government back. This in turn led to the rejection of the government's plans in Parliament and to overthrow the government. The government crisis led to new parliamentary elections on June 5, from which the liberal-conservative PSD emerged as the winner and the ruling Socialists replaced.