True situation within Greece

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Question for you about the sentiment in Portugal - if, suppose, Greece was able to default and go back to the drachma, what would the views be in Portugal/Spain on staying with the Euro? In theory Greece on a drachma could significantly outcompete these countries in terms of tourism (why not go to Greece for 1/4 of the cost, for example). Any other southern European country with a significant tourist component would be very negatively impacted, no?

Leaving the Euro and going back to the Dracma, the Escudo, the Peseta, or to have a new currency would be a disaster as big as the collapse of the Euro or the collapse of the economies inside the Euro.
In the portuguese scenario, getting back to the Escudo would mean to devalue the salaries 30% (at least) and increase the prices of basic products in 50% or more. It would be like returning to the poverty of the mid 70's when we changed the regime. It would be even worse.
In or out of the Euro (assuming that nothing's gonna change dramatically inside Europe), both scenarios appear to be bad.

The road is long and very narrow. It's like a straitjacket. And in the end, you're certain that you're going to get sick until you'll probably die.
At present, we're dying both from the disease and the cure (prescripted by the IMF, the ECB and the EU).
 
This discussion is a very interesting read for me. Especially as I'm in maybe the most pro-European country.

The situation in Portugal barely gets any attention here. It's all about Greece and our own problems. Your description is quite terrifying.

I don't have much to add but I do agree that Europe will never work as a federation. I don't have strong feelings for my own country but I have absolutely no connection with most countries in the EU.
 
Russia in not interested in the collapse of the EU because of the economical and commercial advantages. But Russia is interested in the embrittlement of a few regions like Greece and the Balcains.
When Greece collapses and enters into a military regime... Who do you think is gonna "help" them in the "turkish question"? :D

Turkey doesn't have a particularly pleasant government either I must say!

Greece under a military regime again would be terrifying, especially since it only last happened half a century ago and is probably still 'fresh' in the minds of those who suffered through it.
 
Turkey doesn't have a particularly pleasant government either I must say!

Greece under a military regime again would be terrifying, especially since it only last happened half a century ago and is probably still 'fresh' in the minds of those who suffered through it.

Indeed, Erdogan and his regime is pretty tough and hard to deal with.

But putting myself in the greeks shoes (which means putting myself in my people's shoes within 2 years)... Do greeks prefer a proto-fascist regime, do they prefer to keep with things as they are today or do they mind if the military "take care" of the country?
 
This discussion is a very interesting read for me. Especially as I'm in maybe the most pro-European country.

The situation in Portugal barely gets any attention here. It's all about Greece and our own problems. Your description is quite terrifying.

I don't have much to add but I do agree that Europe will never work as a federation. I don't have strong feelings for my own country but I have absolutely no connection with most countries in the EU.

I've been reading that even Belgium is having some problems that always existed but that are gaining strenght with the crisis, including the Flanders separatist movements. Is that a real "threat" for Belgium? Does that possibility of separatism and those tensions really exist or there's also too much mediatic noise around it and it's not as bad as the media describe it?

Do you (all) know why most of you have heard about Greece, even Ireland and Spain, but not about Portugal?
Because that's (part of) the strategy of this Government: to play dead.

This Government thinks that if we play dead, if no one notices us, if no one talk about us, they think that (by miracle) they'll see us as "the good pupil" and suddenly the speculators will stop the attacks and not link us with Greece. I have bad news for them: we are also Greece.
As long as it depends on me, I'll tell everyone what is going on here and that they don't want it to be known outside.

There's a reason why our PM did not open his mouth to say a word to talk about Portugal's case in the last european summit, a few weeks ago.
There's a reason why out "spin doctors" sell stories to the international media that are completely fake. For example, I read an article (I think it was on The Economist, but I might be wrong) talking about Portugal's successful case and talking about the reform in the Justice sector. What reform? What are they talking about? There's no reform at all.
That's why I would advise you not to believe in what you might read in the international press about Portugal's situation.
 
I honestly don't know.

The financial crisis might speed up the process a bit but the tensions between Flanders and Wallonia are caused by the clusterfuck that is our political system. It doesn't work and it slows everything down. There's a reason why we didn't have a government for over a year.

The separatist party won the federal elections in 2010 in Flanders while the socialist party won in Wallonia (note: the regions have different parties). Those two tried to form a government but (of course) that didn't work out. So in the end, a government was formed without the separatist party. That government is trying to reform the State by giving more authorities to the regions which is what Flanders wants but it is going too slow. Because of that the frustration in Flanders is growing and it's impossible to predict what will happen next.

Only a few weeks ago we had local elections and the separatist party got about 30% of all votes which is huge considering they're a fairly young party. Of course, the elections were local but they definitely showed what Flanders thinks of the current government. 2014 will be a decisive year for Belgium. We have regional and federal elections then. If the separatist party also wins that election and gains more than 30%, who knows what will happen. The traditional parties won't be able to ignore them then.

The success of the separatist party, however, is mainly due to the popularity of one politician (he became mayor of Antwerp which was the main focus of these elections) so it's hard to tell what percentage of people who vote for that party actually want to see Flanders separated from the rest of the country. Brussels is also a huge problem because it's so important for both regions.

So yeah, I often think the international media portrays the situation in our country as something black-white and that's certainly not the case. It's extremely complicated and like with most things here, in the end I think/hope not much will happen
 
I honestly don't know.

The financial crisis might speed up the process a bit but the tensions between Flanders and Wallonia are caused by the clusterfuck that is our political system. It doesn't work and it slows everything down. There's a reason why we didn't have a government for over a year.

The separatist party won the federal elections in 2010 in Flanders while the socialist party won in Wallonia (note: the regions have different parties). Those two tried to form a government but (of course) that didn't work out. So in the end, a government was formed without the separatist party. That government is trying to reform the State by giving more authorities to the regions which is what Flanders wants but it is going too slow. Because of that the frustration in Flanders is growing and it's impossible to predict what will happen next.

Only a few weeks ago we had local elections and the separatist party got about 30% of all votes which is huge considering they're a fairly young party. Of course, the elections were local but they definitely showed what Flanders thinks of the current government. 2014 will be a decisive year for Belgium. We have regional and federal elections then. If the separatist party also wins that election and gains more than 30%, who knows what will happen. The traditional parties won't be able to ignore them then.

The success of the separatist party, however, is mainly due to the popularity of one politician (he became mayor of Antwerp which was the main focus of these elections) so it's hard to tell what percentage of people who vote for that party actually want to see Flanders separated from the rest of the country. Brussels is also a huge problem because it's so important for both regions.

So yeah, I often think the international media portrays the situation in our country as something black-white and that's certainly not the case. It's extremely complicated and like with most things here, in the end I think/hope not much will happen

Yeah, that's why I was curious about the Belgium case, because it's not very well told by the media and because it doesn't have the mediatic attention it deserved. I remember reading about the "revolt of the crisps", but I didn't understand it well, because it's not well explained.
Let's wait for the next chapters...
 
I was researching a little more about Hungary, and the more I read, the scared I get. The similarities with the 1926-74 portuguese fascist regime are frightening.

I'm gonna try to make a summary of the most relevant things I read in portuguese media and I'll leave the links for those who can read portuguese.
Most of this information is unfortunatelly confirmed by the PressEurop articles, which you can read in other languages.

So, are you ready?

Hungary is today a proto-dictatorship in plain EU, which nobody cares about, nobody cares - neither Barroso and Merkel [as long as Hungary continues making products for other bigger and richer countries to consume with a low cost, it's alright].

Just a few examples of what happens in that hole that turned into a proto-fascist regime... After the IMF have been there a few years ago (2006, I guess):

1) The New Constitution [designed by Viktor Orbán's party, FIDESZ, which was once center-right] motto is just like portuguese Constitution during the "Estado Novo" regime (1933-1974): "God, Fatherland and Family";
2) Criminalization of the Left parties and the extreme right (because this last one, JOBBIK, is an electoral threat to FIDESZ). Opposition leaders have already been arrested during demonstrations;
3) The Government did whut down radios and vehicles of media linked with the opposition;
4) It is forbidden to be homeless and is prohibited scour and collect garbage. Anyone caught living on the street is put to work on public works, as well as the unemployed - in a program that (like Hitler) Orbán calls "the public work";
5) Jews and Gypsies (or descendant from these) are chased, beaten and maybe who knows what else;
6) «"The model is China, assured Orbán, in late June of 2011:" A country that was not dominated by Western ideas of the left, that waste time with books is the best way to improve the economic indicators. Over there [China], work is the structural pilar"»;
7) The global crisis in 2008, did the rest. The troika [IMF, UE, ECB] joined and with it, more cuts in this society proverbially melancholy (with one of the highest suicide rates in the world). Unemployment rose. The ghosts returned. Orbán realized the new feeling of fatigue in the country.
8) «The latest poll shows that only one in three Hungarians vote again if there were elections.»
9) School textbooks now include Nazi and anti-Semitic "Heroes", and hundreds of schools were donated to the Catholic Church;
10) «To avoid talking about politics (including the MTV, public TV - Magiar Television, not Music Television) is the most effective way for the media to defend themselves against the Media Authority - the organ of censorship;
11) The TEK is "new anti-terrorist police, led by the head of the bodyguard of Orbán 'that' can do intercept telephone call and make house searches without a warrant";
12) «Many cars, including Orbán's official one, bring along the registration, the symbol of "The Greater Hungary" which is the map of the country before Trianon (which included part of Slovakia, one third of Romania and Croatia), the treaty that penalized the country's defeat in World War. Today, Trianon is still the symbol of Hungarian frustrations.»... This is, chillingly equal to Hitler's Germany's "Vital Space";
13) «Since the City Council passed to the hands of JOBBIK (further extreme right), the "Hungarians" have classes on the first floor, the "gypsies" on the ground floor.»
14) «The document [the new Constitution] is so radical that the United States and the European Union considered it an attack on democracy.»
15) «In the new document, the term "Republic of Hungary" disappears and is replaced by "Hungary". Moreover, there is, first, an explicit religious reference - «God bless the Hungarians»
3) «The constitution also precludes any recognition of gay marriages and decrees the embryo as a human being from conception, preventing the legalization of abortion.»
4) «(...) the opposition radio, the Klubradio, has already lost its frequency.»

Keep reading and let the chills go down your spine. It's right next door.
Do many people talk about it? No.
Do the media pay much attention to it? No.
Do the EU care about this case? Not that much.

All the info was taken from these sites which you can read if you understand portuguese:
Viagem ao fim da democracia - Visao.pt
http://www.ionline.pt/mundo/nova-constituicao-governo-budapeste-abre-portas-ditadura
Heróis, anti-semitas e nazis: a história que os húngaros não conseguem ler - Mundo - PUBLICO.PT
Eurodeputado neonazi da Hungria descobriu que tinha raízes judaicas - Mundo - PUBLICO.PT
 
An uptade on the portuguese situation...

The Government, after intentionally destroying the economy and the ability of creating richness to grow, to pay the debt and to guarantee sustainability, now discovered that the State needs "to be refunded" as well as the "memorandum".
Now they suddenly discovered that we need to cut more €4000 millions (which is huge for our dimension).
To accomplish that they called the IFM to work on a plan to to that.
The intention is to take €500 million on the Defense area and the other €3500 millions on the Health, Education and Social Security. How? Selling it or with temporary concessions to the privates [specially the banks and the biggest portuguese economical groups] who have been flirting with businesses in these sectors for decades.
 
I was researching a little more about Hungary, and the more I read, the scared I get. The similarities with the 1926-74 portuguese fascist regime are frightening.

I'm gonna try to make a summary of the most relevant things I read in portuguese media and I'll leave the links for those who can read portuguese.
Most of this information is unfortunatelly confirmed by the PressEurop articles, which you can read in other languages.

So, are you ready?

Hungary is today a proto-dictatorship in plain EU, which nobody cares about, nobody cares - neither Barroso and Merkel [as long as Hungary continues making products for other bigger and richer countries to consume with a low cost, it's alright].

Just a few examples of what happens in that hole that turned into a proto-fascist regime... After the IMF have been there a few years ago (2006, I guess):

1) The New Constitution [designed by Viktor Orbán's party, FIDESZ, which was once center-right] motto is just like portuguese Constitution during the "Estado Novo" regime (1933-1974): "God, Fatherland and Family";
2) Criminalization of the Left parties and the extreme right (because this last one, JOBBIK, is an electoral threat to FIDESZ). Opposition leaders have already been arrested during demonstrations;
3) The Government did whut down radios and vehicles of media linked with the opposition;
4) It is forbidden to be homeless and is prohibited scour and collect garbage. Anyone caught living on the street is put to work on public works, as well as the unemployed - in a program that (like Hitler) Orbán calls "the public work";
5) Jews and Gypsies (or descendant from these) are chased, beaten and maybe who knows what else;
6) «"The model is China, assured Orbán, in late June of 2011:" A country that was not dominated by Western ideas of the left, that waste time with books is the best way to improve the economic indicators. Over there [China], work is the structural pilar"»;
7) The global crisis in 2008, did the rest. The troika [IMF, UE, ECB] joined and with it, more cuts in this society proverbially melancholy (with one of the highest suicide rates in the world). Unemployment rose. The ghosts returned. Orbán realized the new feeling of fatigue in the country.
8) «The latest poll shows that only one in three Hungarians vote again if there were elections.»
9) School textbooks now include Nazi and anti-Semitic "Heroes", and hundreds of schools were donated to the Catholic Church;
10) «To avoid talking about politics (including the MTV, public TV - Magiar Television, not Music Television) is the most effective way for the media to defend themselves against the Media Authority - the organ of censorship;
11) The TEK is "new anti-terrorist police, led by the head of the bodyguard of Orbán 'that' can do intercept telephone call and make house searches without a warrant";
12) «Many cars, including Orbán's official one, bring along the registration, the symbol of "The Greater Hungary" which is the map of the country before Trianon (which included part of Slovakia, one third of Romania and Croatia), the treaty that penalized the country's defeat in World War. Today, Trianon is still the symbol of Hungarian frustrations.»... This is, chillingly equal to Hitler's Germany's "Vital Space";
13) «Since the City Council passed to the hands of JOBBIK (further extreme right), the "Hungarians" have classes on the first floor, the "gypsies" on the ground floor.»
14) «The document [the new Constitution] is so radical that the United States and the European Union considered it an attack on democracy.»
15) «In the new document, the term "Republic of Hungary" disappears and is replaced by "Hungary". Moreover, there is, first, an explicit religious reference - «God bless the Hungarians»
3) «The constitution also precludes any recognition of gay marriages and decrees the embryo as a human being from conception, preventing the legalization of abortion.»
4) «(...) the opposition radio, the Klubradio, has already lost its frequency.»

Keep reading and let the chills go down your spine. It's right next door.
Do many people talk about it? No.
Do the media pay much attention to it? No.
Do the EU care about this case? Not that much.

All the info was taken from these sites which you can read if you understand portuguese:
Viagem ao fim da democracia - Visao.pt
http://www.ionline.pt/mundo/nova-constituicao-governo-budapeste-abre-portas-ditadura
Heróis, anti-semitas e nazis: a história que os húngaros não conseguem ler - Mundo - PUBLICO.PT
Eurodeputado neonazi da Hungria descobriu que tinha raízes judaicas - Mundo - PUBLICO.PT

Yep, just as I had thought. Strangling the life of the human being, virtually. It's pretty upsetting despite having little to no connection to the country.
 
«The '"reforms" are showing its early successes' in countries like Ireland, Portugal, Spain and even Greece, Merkel stated at a debate at the European Parliament in Brussels.» Merkel, today.

Successes? What successes? WTF is this dictator talking about? Last week, she even claimed that due to its "success", she wants this receipt for Europe for 5 more years... Curiosly, by coincidente (noooot!) 5 years is the end of an hypothetical 3rd Merkel governement (starting next year).
This is obviously Merkel already in campaign.

Merkel comes to Portugal, her newly conquered province of Germany, just like when the King visits its colonies, next week, for 6 hours only, so that some crazy desperate won't remind to plan an attack on lady...
Some monuments will be covered in black as a protest sign, and I'll dress myself in black too.
But her tamed puppy, Passos Coelho, already said that he wants his colonials to receive the "Fürher" well, because «she helped us overcoming a situation of great difficulty».

Also this week, Merkel reinforced once again the idea that the EU (read "Germany", read "her!) should control the budget's of the countries that violate the targets of deficit and debt (read "the PIIGS").

Meanwhile in Greece, right now, violence on the streets of Athens once again, where 70 000 people concentrate in front of the Syntagma, the greek parliment which is approving the 489048572th austerity package which will not work again, which lead to the 489048573th package soon, and so.
 

Updated news say that it was 100 000 people and not 70 000 in front of the Syntagma.
The news also said that of the 169 deputees that belong to the parties that support the Government (129 from ND, 33 from PASOK and 17 from DIMAR - 300 total seats in the House), only 151 voted for the new austerity package.
Which means that, as I predicted, there are already serious cracks inside the already fragile coalition.
 
Makes you wonder how many of these battles between the protestors and the police it will take to create something resembling a revolution.
 
A text I found circulating on Facebook about the greek situation, the german reaction and the paralelism between the german situation on the 1950's:

["quick" translation (from Pt to Eng) made by myself]

Where did memory go? - A little bit of History
And it is interesting to recall the facts:

In 1953, less than 60 years ago - a generation - the Germany of Konrad Adenauer went into default, bankruptcy, went "kaput", or ran out money to move the country's economic activity. Just like Greece currently.
Germany negotiated 16 billion deutsch marks in debt from 1920 that went into default in the 30s after the stock market crash on Wall Street. The money had been loaned by the USA, France and the UK.
Another 16 billion deutsch marks were for loans in U.S. postwar, under the London Agreement on German Debts (LDA), 1953. The total payable was reduced 50% to about 15 billion marks for a period of 30 years, which had almost no impact on the German economy growing. (1)
The German surrender was made by a group of countries including Greece, Belgium, Canada, Ceylon, Denmark, France, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Norway, Pakistan, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland, the USA and Yugoslavia.
The german debts were made before and after World War II. Some with origin on war reparations and other from giant loans from the American government and businesses. For 20 years, how this agreement recalls, Berlin did not honor any debt payment (!).
Incredibly, just eight years after Greece was invaded and brutally occupied by Nazi troops, Athens agreed to participate in the international effort to take Germany's out of the terrible bankruptcy it was in. Now the monetary costs of the German occupation of Greece was estimated at 162 billion euros without interest. After the war, Germany was offset by losses in Greece or captured ships bombarded during the period of neutrality, for damage to the Greek economy, and pay compensation to the victims of the German army of occupation. The estimated number of Greek victims is than a million people (38,960 executed, 12 000 slaughtered, 70 000 killed in battle, 105,000 in concentration camps in Germany, and 600 thousand who perished of hunger). Moreover, the Nazi hordes stolen priceless Greek archaeological treasures.
What was the reaction of the German parliamentary right to the current financial problems of Greece? According to this, Greece should consider selling land, historic buildings and art objects to reduce your debt.
Besides taking austerity measures imposed as public sector cuts and the freezing of pensions, the Greeks should sell some islands - defended by two prominent members of the CDU [Christian-Democratic Union], Josef Schlarmann and Frank Schaeffler, the party of Chancellor Merkel. The two officials came to opine that the Parthenon, and some Greek islands in the Aegean, should be sold to avoid bankruptcy. "Those that are insolvent should sell what they have to pay their creditors," they said to the newspaper "Bild".
After that, came inside the german executive the pilgrim-idea of ​​putting an european commissioner to oversee the accounts permanently Greek in Athens.
The historian Albrecht Ritschl of the London School of Economics, recently recalled the "Spiegel" that Germany was the worst debtor nation of the twentieth century. The economist notes that the insolvency of the German debt of the 1930's makes the Greek one today seem insignificant. "In the twentieth century, Germany was responsible for the largest bankruptcy in living memory," he said. "It was only thanks to the United States, which pumped huge amounts of money after the First and Second World War that Germany became financially stable today and holds the status of locomotive of Europe. This fact, unfortunately, seems forgotten," stresses Ritsch.
The historian notes that Germany has unleashed two world wars, the second of annihilation and extermination, and then his enemies forgave him fully payment of reparations or postponed them. Greece does not forget that Germany owes its economic prosperity to other countries. Therefore, some Greeks lawmakers suggest that accounting of German debts to Greece is made so of these amount Greece discounts what Germany owes to Greece.
The ingratitude of countries, as well as people's, is often accompanied by a lack of memory.

by Albrecht Ritschl of the London School of Economics)


(1) The agreement also stated that Germany would only pay per year the equivalent to a percentage of its exports, so, the payment of the debt would follow Germany's economic evolution, allowing Germany to develop its economy and so pay its debt. Something that is 100% ignored for the countries in trouble like Greece, Portugal, Spain, etc.
 
If you want to know how someone from Greece feels,then you can ask me.I don't know anything about politics because I am still a teenager and because I actually don't even want to know,but the sure thing is that everyone around me does and doesn't seem to be very huppy about this whole situation.I was born in Athens and I remember when life was peaceful,but a few years later everything changed(for me as I remember,but I think things were already bad back then too).I moved from Athens to another smaller city in cental Greece a few years ago,but still I watch at the news that there are lots of problems in Athens.Everytime I visit my relatives there,I always run into protests.Everyone is unhuppy because nobody knows what is going to happen the next day. All I know is that there are lots of scandals that are about greek polititians,that most times(99,9%)are true,and make people go nutts!!! I just wonder how the hell I and thousends of other kids are going to grow up with this kind of problems,without even knowing if we will ever find a job that is going to ensure us a salary in order to pay all the taxes,the bills and have some money left in order to have something to eat.I know that there are worse situations than this,but still I can't say that I'm living a life full of roses like some people who work at the parliament and get HUGE salaries!!!Yes, I admit that I have things that I want and I have to say that I don't need more things than those I aready have,but still I don't want to leave in my country like this,waking up and listening to all those bad things!!!:angry:
 
If you want to know how someone from Greece feels,then you can ask me.I don't know anything about politics because I am still a teenager and because I actually don't even want to know,but the sure thing is that everyone around me does and doesn't seem to be very huppy about this whole situation.I was born in Athens and I remember when life was peaceful,but a few years later everything changed(for me as I remember,but I think things were already bad back then too).I moved from Athens to another smaller city in cental Greece a few years ago,but still I watch at the news that there are lots of problems in Athens.Everytime I visit my relatives there,I always run into protests.Everyone is unhuppy because nobody knows what is going to happen the next day. All I know is that there are lots of scandals that are about greek polititians,that most times(99,9%)are true,and make people go nutts!!! I just wonder how the hell I and thousends of other kids are going to grow up with this kind of problems,without even knowing if we will ever find a job that is going to ensure us a salary in order to pay all the taxes,the bills and have some money left in order to have something to eat.I know that there are worse situations than this,but still I can't say that I'm living a life full of roses like some people who work at the parliament and get HUGE salaries!!!Yes, I admit that I have things that I want and I have to say that I don't need more things than those I aready have,but still I don't want to leave in my country like this,waking up and listening to all those bad things!!!:angry:

I heard that DIMAR rejected the new austerity measures leaving PASOK and Nea Democratia alone (who expelled deputees who also voted against it).
To me it would indicate that this coalition government will not last long, which means that you'll have elections soon again.

Just please don't tell me you will vote for Chrysi Avgi or in the culprits of your situation (PASOK and Nea Democratia) in these probable next elections if you have the legal age to vote.

Everyone says that Portugal is a different case, a successful case, but everything I see is the exact same movie I watched in Greece, only 18 months late in each episode. I'm scared.
 
Today, Angela Merkel visited one of the provinces of her new IV Reich, Portugal. The city of Lisbon almost stopped because of her.
I'll take the opportunity to post a photo of the press conference that she and her puppy, Passos Coelho, gave this afternoon in Lisbon.

MerkelGovernoLisboa01.jpg


Now I ask for those who payed more attention to the picture: what's the wrong thing about this photo?
 
So the United States of Europe officially exists now? And Angela Merkel is its President? Wow...
 
So the United States of Europe officially exists now?
we're on our way
and some day it will include the UK too
though probably not in my lifetime
but it is inevitable
you have to be one very optimistic person to believe any European country (apart, maybe, from Germany, funny enough) will be able to compete on the world market 50 years from now

I don't condone what Europe is doing to Greece
but the fact is that stronger economies and less strong economies will finally have to merge (something that should have been done prior to the Euro really)
and the stronger economies will not allow for this without letting the others bleed

is this fair? no
but since they have voters to answer to, it is what it is
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=VmsxzCDwchA

Watch the video.
This is Lisbon, an hour ago.
«Portugal is not Greece». «Portugal is the good obedient pupil where everything's going well.»

Do you know why this happened suddenly?
Because there's a football match on TV within a few minutes.
If you understand portuguese, you'll notice that around 2:30, there's a journalist saying to the police something like «Don't hit us! Don't hit us! We're journalists!»
 
Police chasing protestors and then beating them? Seems like the usual in economic situations such as these.
 
Police chasing protestors and then beating them? Seems like the usual in economic situations such as these.

We're not used to such violence here in Portugal. Although there's some violence, not like this. This is just the beggining of a crescendo here.
I don't know if it also happens in other countries or not (in Spain it does), but here it's not the first time that the police forgets all kinds of rational thoughts and starts spanking all types of people, from young people to old people (today in Spain the police even beated on a 10 year old boy who had nothing to do with it), from protestors to journalists...
 
it's just horrendous - there are some very disturbing photos of police brutality from yesterday in Spain on facebook

i thought the police were meant to be "civil servants", protecting the people - we're the ones who pay them with our taxes!
 
I haven't seen the pictures,
but I would guess that the protestors weren't holding hands & singing 'Give peace a chance' when the police decided to beat the &#!+ out of them.

I'm also sure that at some places police has used excessive force though.
But I don't think Europe has quite become a warzone where chaos rules.
 
I haven't seen the pictures,
but I would guess that the protestors weren't holding hands & singing 'Give peace a chance' when the police decided to beat the &#!+ out of them.

I'm also sure that at some places police has used excessive force though.
But I don't think Europe has quite become a warzone where chaos rules.

Nope. Some protestors weren't holding hands and singing for peace.
Some.
In many videos it is clear that many people were only there in anger just to protest peacefully.
I was in another part of the city, so I didn't watch this live, only on tv.
I've been reading the reports and watching the news and I'm a bit shocked.

There's people reporting that the "bad guys" had been throwing rocks and glass bottles to the police and to the parliment for a long time and only suddenly without a special "event", the police came down and started to spank everyone they found, irracionally, as robots.

Some people report that there were mostly old people, children and women crying in panic because of the sudden act of violence. There are reports of parents with their children in their arms, running from the police who were running after them and beat them in the legs, so they fell, got bruised and went to the hospital. There are also images of the police shooting at the windows of the people who live there and that were watching all that in their balconies.

And now the news that hundreds of people were arrested, including people that had nothing to do with the demonstration/riot (because the S. Bento area is pretty central and it is the connection between many streets and neighbourhoods) and many of them were prevented to see lawyers (who were blocked to enter the police departments), which is forbidden here.

To me, this smells too much like Estado Novo. It reminds me too much of the old regime and it scares me :(
We were not used to this kind of things for a long time here...
 
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