Youth and poor bear brunt of austerity in Portugal
With austerity set to tighten its grip this year as the government struggles to get a 9.8 per cent deficit in 2010 down to 3 per cent by 2013, people are increasingly apprehensive, warns Elísio Estanque, a professor at the Centre of Social Studies at Coimbra University.
“The crisis is hitting Portugal’s younger generation hardest, with youth unemployment at 26 per cent. In terms of potential being wasted they are the principal victims. This is why they are indignant,” he explains.
More broadly, a whole swathe of society that saw its lot improve with the democratisation and integration into Europe that followed the overthrow of the Salazar dictatorship in 1974 now faces an uncertain future.
“The lower middle class thought they would continue to progress socially, but now that process is in reverse,” says Estanque. “Austerity means the social advances achieved in public health and education since the ’74 revolution are now at risk.”
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