Abstract
In 2008–2010, Portugal and other Southern European markets were hit by the financial crisis. Since then, new forms of political protests emerged in the Portuguese political arena. The pioneering protest, called Geração à Rasca—Generation in Trouble—was a demonstration that took place on March 12, 2011, in Lisbon and Porto, the two largest Portuguese cities. This type of protest, here called protest publics, was self-organized outside government structures and mainly organized through social networks, signals the emergence of a crisis of the country’s democratic institutions and generates political change. The aim of this chapter is to analyse these protest publics in Portugal. The inquiry will show how the protests stimulated the emergence of a left coalition that has ruled Portugal since November 2015, the so-called geringonça (contraption, satirical expression of an unusual coalition), marking one of the largest transformations of the political scene since democratization.
This chapter was reviewed by Claudia Favarato, Institute of Social and Political Sciences, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal.
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Notes
- 1.
“Five hundred eurists”, young people that earn around 500,00 €.
- 2.
The European troika is the designation of the triumvirate representing foreign/institutes of the EU, concerning in particular its common foreign and security policy (CFSP). Currently, to talk about the troika (especially in the media) refers to a decision group formed by the European Commission (EC), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
- 3.
See the lyric of the song Que parva que eu sou [I am such a fool], of the musical group Deolinda, Retrievable from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGS7vAliIjI (Accessed 9 September 2017).
- 4.
See the manifest of Geração à Rasca [Generation in Trouble] protest. Retrievable from: https://geracaoenrascada.wordpress.com/manifesto/english/ (accessed 9 September 2017).
- 5.
Since 2008 there has been a rise in the unemployment rate, particularly in the case of young people under 25 years of age, exceeding 25% from 2009. From 2009, the youth unemployment rate has hit successive records, reaching more than 35% in 2011, which means that in every three young people, one was unemployed.
- 6.
Retrievable from: http://www.tvi24.iol.pt/sociedade/11-03-2016/cinco-anos-apos-a-manifestacao-ainda-existe-uma-geracao-a-rasca (accessed 9 September 2017).
- 7.
Retrieved from: https://www.publico.pt/2017/05/22/economia/noticia/comissao-recomenda-saida-de-portugal-do-procedimento-por-defice-excessivo-1773012 (accessed 9 September 2017).
- 8.
Retrieved from: http://www.jornaldenegocios.pt/economia/detalhe/centeno-portugal-saira-do-procedimento-por-defices-excessivos (accessed 9 September 2017).
- 9.
Retrieved from: https://www.rtp.pt/programa/tv/p32609/e36 (accessed 9 September 2017).
- 10.
A draft paper (not for quotation) on the protest waves of 2010s was prepared, presented and discussed on the XXII World Congress of Political Science (IPSA, Madrid, July, 2012) RC37. The main focus on “crisis” was explored by the authors, on the book in Cambridge Scholars Publishing: Plunging in Turmoil in the Aftermath of Crisis. Here the main goal of this chapter is to focus on the outcome of the Geração à Rasca mobilization in 2011.
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Sarmento, C.M., Oliveira, P., Tomás, P. (2019). Retracing Protest Publics in Portugal: A Generation in Trouble. In: Belyaeva, N., Albert, V., Zaytsev, D.G. (eds) Protest Publics. Societies and Political Orders in Transition. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05475-5_6
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