Protests begin outside Parliament after Portugal passes austerity budget
Baku, November 1 (AZERTAC). The Portuguese parliament adopted on Wednesday a 2013 austerity budget that includes draconian tax increases required by international creditors, in the teeth of swelling street protests.
The country’s ruling centre-right coalition had the votes to push the budget through despite opposition from the Socialist and extreme left parties.
The tax increases, which are aimed at curbing the swollen Portuguese public deficit, come as the country is already hit by a biting recession.
A general strike was also planned for November 14, coinciding with similar action in neighbouring Spain, under the slogan “Against Exploitation and Impoverishment.”
Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho is determined to cut Portugal’s public deficit to 4.5 percent of gross domestic product next year from a target of 5.0 percent this year.
Portugal’s deficit targets have been relaxed in agreement with the International Monetary Fund and European Union, which extended a 78-billion-euro ($101-billion) bailout in May 2011.
Opposition Socialist Party secretary general Antonio Jose Seguro denounced “excessive austerity” in the budget.
The Socialist’s rejection of the budget dealt a blow to a political consensus on the international programme that is often touted by the country’s rescuers.
In the streets, discontent is growing, with official forecasts tipping a record unemployment rate of 16.4 percent next year.
Hundreds of thousands of people spilled into the streets in mid-September and many citizens’ groups called for a rally against “criminal” budget measures outside the parliament on the afternoon of the budget vote.
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