MADRID: A wave of anti-austerity anger breaks across Europe today, with general strikes in Spain and Portugal spearheading a day of protest that will ground more than 700 flights.
Growing angst over public spending cuts and tax increases is being exposed in particular in debt-struck eurozone economies already suffering high unemployment and recession.
Clashes between riot police and protesters have broken out in stricken eurozone states such as Greece and Italy, and less frequently in Spain, now grappling also with the despair of evicted home-owners.
Rallying behind slogans such as “They are taking away our future!” and “There are the guilty, there are solutions!,” Spain’s main CCOO and UGT unions called a second general strike in eight months.
Airlines operating in Spain, including Iberia, Iberia Express, Air Nostrum, Vueling, Spanair and easyJet cut more than 600 flights including some 250 international routes. Ryanair said no flights had been scrapped yet. Dozens of protests by unions and activists are planned across Spain.
Neighbouring Portugal will also hold a general strike. Protests are being called in some 40 towns and cities across the bailed-out nation, including Lisbon and Porto.
Greece has called a three-hour work stoppage and a rally in Athens. Italian unions, too, are seeking a four-hour work stoppage.
In Germany, the union federation DGB has called protests across the country including in Berlin and Frankfurt. High-speed Thalys rail services between Belgium and Germany have been cancelled for the day. AFP
