“The whole month costs, we want a righteous life”; “Housing is a right, without it nothing is going on”; “I work with rights for immigrants; “Be Portuguese in 2023? Smile to emigrate later”; “Inflation takes away our bread”; “Costa, did you live on 700 euros gross per month?”. “There are so many that I don’t even know what to talk about anymore.”
It was made of many and different slogans the demonstration promoted this Saturday by the citizens’ movement Vida Justa, which, according to the organization, brought together thousands of people in Lisbon – ten thousand. Promoted by associations, social activists and residents of the peripheral districts, on a route from the Marquês de Pombal to the Assembly of the Republic, the The protest brought families and many young people together to demand better living conditions.
This was the case of Miriam Carvalho, a 24-year-old girl from Almada, who joined the demonstration “on behalf of all young people who are struggling, with salaries that do not match what they need”. A reality he says he knows well: “I work, but I live with the support of my parents”. A few steps ahead in the parade, Rui Caldeira, 26 years old, does not differ much in complaints: in the labor market “four years” he has never known anything other than “forward contracts and poorly paid”. He does the math to leave his parent’s house, “to share with a friend because it’s impossible alone”. And yet, “it’s not easy” – “They talk a lot about young people, but just talk, you don’t see anything. It seems that they are waiting for all young people to emigrate”.
It was also mainly on behalf of young people that Dulce Romão, 57, went to the demonstration with her 23-year-old son and her husband: “I came to support, given the situation we are in. Life is very complicated, we have a lot of inequality, we have racism, we have the lack of housing, which affects young people so much”. A concern echoed by the Assembly of the Republic in some organizers’ latest speeches: “Whose city is it?” asked from the organization’s van. “It’s ours,” was the response.
“1,2,3, Here We Are Again”
Just before the start of the Vida Justa demonstration, early Saturday afternoon, thousands of teachers had already gathered next to the Palace of Justice, on top of Parque Eduardo VII, for yet another protest parade, promoted by STOP (Sindicato de All Education Professionals). “One, two, three, we’re back,” the teachers chanted, pointing their batteries at Education Minister João Costa. With the machine already well oiled (this is already the fourth demonstration promoted by STOP in recent months), the van that opened the parade issued the slogan: “If the minister has no sense and steals due service, people pay” . Songs interrupted by the reverberation of the funeral march, at the sound of which the teachers sit on the floor and, at the end of the demonstration, with “the funeral of the public school”, accompanied by candles and white handkerchiefs. Right at the start of the protest, STOP coordinator André Pestana expressed his belief that the Portuguese are in solidarity with the teachers’ claims, citing a poll commissioned by the union, according to which the majority of respondents in in favor of reinstatement of total service time, one of teachers’ main demands.
“We are here fighting for the public school and for the rights of the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic, which are being questioned”, says DN Ana Cláudia Nascimento, a teacher from Vila Nova de Gaia who again participated in the protests of the teaching class this Saturday. Arguing that with the minimum service obligation, the government obliges teachers to “maximum service”, “making it impossible for them to fulfill a right that is everyone’s right”, this teacher accuses the ministry of not to represent” and “a strategy that focuses on economic savings and not on the quality of education”.
Isabel Tavares, a math teacher for 20 years and working in Greater Lisbon, agrees with the same criticism, saying that the ministry is willing to give teachers “a handful of nothing”. and maintains criticism of the communality of teacher placement. And when the Ministry of Education denies that was the intention, this teacher doesn’t believe it – “They’ve changed the name, call it what you like. What they want is to reach the teachers”.
“Costa, listen, the people are fighting”
If the two demonstrations followed different paths, they met at the point of arrival – next to the Assembly of the Republic – not without hesitation, talks between the organizers and a long wait of STOP. After the interventions of the initiators of Vida Justa had already been completed, the van of the Union of all education professionals ended up in the square in front of the parliament, followed by the teachers (in greater numbers), with André Pestana solidarity with the demands of the civil movement, ask the teachers to applaud the other demonstrators (applause that was returned on the other side) and to call on teachers to sign the petition launched by the Vida Justa movement in defense of better living conditions. Protesters on both sides eventually united: “Costa, listen, the people are fighting”.
Source: DN
