Lisbon: Portugal's biggest unions Wednesday staged their first joint strike in over 20 years, hoping to weaken government resolve in implementing austerity measures designed to shield the country from Eurozone contagion.
Now that Ireland has announced its intention to seek assistance from the EU and IMF, investors are turning their attention to other financially weak euro nations like Portugal, which faces acute pressure to restore confidence in its economy.
Any wavering in the government's commitment to new austerity measures could push up Portugal's borrowing costs in the same vicious spiral that forced Athens and Dublin to seek rescues. As the country's two biggest unions stopped trains and buses, grounded planes and halted services from health care to banking, the spreads of 10-year Portuguese bonds over German benchmarks hit a euro lifetime high.
Quiet mood
Lisbon was relatively quiet as many workers were prevented from going to work but roads in and around the capital were choked with traffic as commuters opted to use their cars. Cafés and shops were open and vans delivered goods as usual.
"What's coming for the new generation is very sad. I don't see a solution for them aside from emigrating to other countries where they may have new opportunities," said Madalena Costa, 66, a retired schoolteacher as she passed a train station emptied by the strike.
Others were angered by the protest, saying the country could not afford the stoppage, the first general strike by the country's top two unions since 1988.
"This strike is completely absurd," said Pedro Silva, 36, a biology teacher at a private school, who was forced to take a taxi to work.
"The Portuguese have to understand that there is no money and if there is no money people have to work to get it."
Prime Minister Jose Socrates, whose government is struggling to quash speculation that Portugal will be next in line for a bailout, has pledged to stay the course on wage cuts and tax hikes to cut the budget deficit.
