The 12 March Movement () or the Geração à Rasca (, "struggling generation") protest took place in more than 10 cities of

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

against the

economic crisis A financial crisis is any of a broad variety of situations in which some financial assets suddenly lose a large part of their nominal value. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, many financial crises were associated with banking panics, and ma ...

and labour rights. They were the biggest events since the 1974

Carnation Revolution The Carnation Revolution (), code-named Operation Historic Turn (), also known as the 25 April (), was a military coup by military officers that overthrew the Estado Novo government on 25 April 1974 in Portugal. The coup produced major socia ...

and organized without support from political parties or

trades union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

s. A Facebook event and a blog, created by a group of friends—Alexandre de Sousa Carvalho, João Labrincha and Paula Gil—were the starting point.

Background

A number of musical acts in Portugal had been involved in protest actions against the austerity measures at the beginning of the crisis. Music addressing Portugal's political situation became a part of local and national political protest narratives, which found music playing an important role in protests in Portugal—as they have since the Portuguese Revolution culminating in the 25 April coup in 1974. Among this music was traditional Portuguese music and instruments including gaitas, flutes, rhythm sections, and brass music. The organizers of Geração a Rasca put out a general call for musicians to appear in the procession, and also included personal invitations to some of the musical acts to perform. Various protest songs addressing the precarious situation in Portugal during the crisis were performed in Portugal.

Deolinda Deolinda () were an acoustic Portugal, Portuguese "neofado" group, whose music often deals with social and political commentary. Founded in 2006, their first album was released in 2008, which went double platinum. Their second was in the top ten ...

's song "Parva Que Sou", which talks about precarious working conditions for Portuguese youth, in particular qualified university graduates, became an inspiration for some of the protesters. Other inspiration for the protests came from

Homens da Luta Homens da Luta (English: Men of the Struggle) were a Portuguese improvisational comedy and musical street performance duo consisting of brothers Nuno Duarte ("Neto") and Vasco Duarte ("Falâncio"). Their songs are a parody of protest songs sung du ...

, a comedian duo who won the

Festival da Canção (; "Song Festival") or Festival RTP da Canção is the name given to the national festival produced and broadcast by (RTP) to select for the Eurovision Song Contest. It was first held in 1964. History Like most music festivals in isolated ...

with a song about the "joy of the struggle", emulating social protests of the 1960s.

Gatherings

Around 300,000 people gathered on 12 March 2011 in

Porto Porto (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Portugal, second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is the capital of the Porto District and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto c ...

and

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

alone. Events also occurred in several other Portuguese cities, including

Funchal Funchal () officially Funchal City (), is the capital, largest city and a Municipality (Portugal), municipality in Portugal's Madeira, Autonomous Region of Madeira, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean. The city has a population of 105,795, making it ...

Ponta Delgada Ponta Delgada (; ) is the largest municipality (''concelho'') and executive capital of the Autonomous Region of the Azores in Portugal. It is located on São Miguel Island, the largest and most populous in the archipelago. As of 2021, it has 67,2 ...

Viseu Viseu () is a city and municipality in the Centro Region of Portugal and the capital of the Viseu District, district of the same name, with a population of 100,105 inhabitants in the entire municipality, and center of the Viseu Dão Lafões Interm ...

Braga Braga (; ) is a cities of Portugal, city and a Municipalities of Portugal, municipality, capital of the northwestern Portugal, Portuguese Braga (district), district of Braga and of the historical and cultural Minho Province. Braga Municipality ...

, Castelo Branco,

Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ), officially the City of Coimbra (), is a city and a concelho, municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2021 census was 140,796, in an area of . The fourth-largest agglomerated urban area in Po ...

, Faro,

Guimarães Guimarães () is a city and municipality located in northern Portugal, in the district of Braga. Its historic town centre has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001, in recognition for being an "exceptionally well-preserved ...

and

Leiria Leiria () is a city and municipality in the Central Region, Portugal, Central Region of Portugal. It is the 2nd largest city in that same region, after Coimbra, with a municipality population of 128,640 (as of 2021) in an area of . It is the seat o ...

. Several Portuguese emigrants also gathered in front of the embassies of their countries of residence to protest in Barcelona, London, Berlin, The Hague, Madrid, Lubliana, Luxemburg, Brussels, Maputo, New York, Copenhagen and Stuttgart.

Impact

Spain's May demonstrations were influenced by the Portuguese events, which in turn incited new activity in Portugal. On 23 March 2011, the prime minister

José Sócrates José Sócrates Carvalho Pinto de Sousa (born 6 September 1957), commonly known as José Sócrates (), is a Portuguese politician who was the prime minister of Portugal from 12 March 2005 to 21 June 2011. For the second half of 2007, he acted ...

resigned when new austerity measures failed to pass in the Parliament. On 15 April 2011, the initial organizers of the Geração à Rasca protest created the 12 March Movement. This small group of young people gathered with other activists to create a movement with the objective to "Make every citizen a politician", a sentence from the Portuguese Nobel Prize winner

José Saramago José de Sousa Saramago (; 16 November 1922 – 18 June 2010) was a Portuguese people, Portuguese writer. He was the recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature for his "parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony 15 October global day of protest against the usual suspects. Hundreds broke through a police cordon around the parliament in Lisbon to occupy its broad marble staircase, where a popular assembly took place. About 20,000 people also rallied in

, Portugal's second biggest city. The 12 March Movement, as others created after the Geração à Rasca protest, is still very active in several political and civic actions. After the demonstration "people discovered that they have 'a voice', they are more conscientious and more aware to political issues". Civil "society smore alive and awakened".

Notes

References

* * * * * * * * {{Authority control 2011 in Portugal

Euroscepticism in Portugal

Protests in Portugal

Background

Gatherings

Impact

See also

Notes

References