Representatives of various European left parties were present in Athens rally of international solidarity with Greek resistance. Alexis Tsipras, President of Synapismos party and Syriza coalition, and Manolis Glezos, politician and writer who led anti-fascist resistance movements during the II World War, stressed the importance of the fight of European people as a whole.

The MEP Marisa Matias represented the Left Block of Portugal, warning about the new forms of despotism: "We now have a new form of dictatorship: the financial. It is a prevalent type of dictatorship that is spreading everywhere ".

Many people got together on Friday on Kotzia Square, one of main locations of the Greek capital where weeks ago acts of political and social struggle against the austerity policy took place.

According to Marisa Matias, the situation that people are living in Portugal can be seen as a reflection of the Greek situation in a mirror. “Everything is done in the name of stability. In Portugal we are hostages of both stability and growth programmes and of the two parties that ruled the country in recent years. As a result of speculative attacks against sovereign debts of the Southern countries, Portuguese citizens are now still poorer”, she added.

Speakers also defended that the citizens are losing their rights. In Portugal, as in Greece, the unemployment fund was considered a right but now it is treated as a privilege. The result is simple: further declining of the weakest, reducing their income. “Cuts in unemployment has been justified by the need to ensure that – and the words that I use are those that have been currently used – anyone takes "advantage" of being unemployed precisely because being unemployed can be "a situation more comfortable than employment". These words have been said in a context where there are efforts to create jobs and that half of all unemployed persons are not even entitled to grant; Secondly, they are the first to be called to pay the bill of the crisis. Other measures such as cuts in social pensions are also being taken. In Portugal, as in Greece, the stability and growth Programmes never cut where the real expenses are (corruption, public works, public-private partnerships, …), privileges are kept intact while the impunity of incompetent and responsible people for managing the damage prevails. This is the Group of the untouchables. If the unemployed and the workers were corrupt they would have already been saved! We are fighting. And you, the Greek people, have been an example of how to fight for social justice, Matias reaffirmed.

On the 29th of May a general strike is predicted in Portugal to protest against the austerity measures and to fight for social justice.