The New York Times published an interesting article last Sunday, which focuses on the crisis in Portugal and how it reveals itself in the street walls of Lisbon. People are naturally dissatisfied with the course of events leading the country to the brink of economic and social collapse, and some are using graffitti and stencils as an original form of nonviolent protest.
Portugal never fared well economically since it joined the Euro, and bad turned to worse when the former center-left executive agreed to apply severe austerity measures monitored by IMF, ECB and European Commission in May 2011, in exchange for an €80 billion loan. The result so far is the third highest unemployment rate in EU (15%, after Spain and Greece), a pronounced recession (more than 3% of GDP in 2012), and the consequent degradation of life quality. The current center-right government was elected soon after the loan was contracted, and is prolonging the pain of austerity even further than troika's recommendations.
The future of Portugal and that of many peripheral countries is somber and uncertain, and the very foundations of the European Union are at stake. Let us not forget that the thriving postwar Europe was a bastion of peace and solidarity, and make sure that these two principles are fulfilled to overcome the current crisis.
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