Thousands of public and private sector workers across Portugal demonstrated in Lisbon on Saturday, demanding higher wages and other measures to combat the rising cost of living, AFP reported. Agerpres.

“The cost of living is becoming unbearable”, “it is unacceptable to become poor while working”, – chanted, among other things, the demonstrators who passed through the main boulevard of the Portuguese capital.

The demonstration, organized at the call of the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers (CGTP), comes a day after a national strike by civil servants demanding higher wages. Waste collection, schools and hospitals were affected.

The CGTP, Portugal’s main trade union confederation, is also demanding price controls on basic goods, help to offset rising rents and mortgage rates, and measures against material insecurity.

In 2022, the inflation rate in Portugal reached a historical level of 7.8% per year, the highest rate in the last three decades.

“We demand an increase in wages, but a real increase, higher than inflation, which will allow families to restore and strengthen their purchasing power,” said the general secretary of the union, Isabel Camarinha, at the end of the demonstration. “We want salaries to increase by at least 10% and in no case below 100 euros for all employees,” she said.