Thousands of protesters in Porto against the EU social summit

On the sidelines of a European summit where the Twenty-Seven pledged to build a more social Europe, thousands of demonstrators marched on Saturday, May 8 in Porto, in northern Portugal, to denounce unemployment, precariousness or privatizations .

Read also: Employment, training and poverty on the menu of the Porto social summit

“

If they have social concerns, it is not a summit that is needed but concrete actions on the ground.

Companies, we know that they have no social concerns,

”Telmo Silva told AFP.

Affected by the collective dismissal of 150 employees of a major refinery in the country which recently ceased its activity, this 36-year-old man accuses his employer for 15 years, the Portuguese energy group Galp, of "

taking advantage of the energy transition to eliminate jobs, reduce wages and take away rights

”.

Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, repeated over and over again that the social summit in Porto should precisely reassure Europeans.

After a series of meetings with representatives of trade unions and employers on Friday, EU leaders on Saturday approved an "

action plan

" on the social issue that the Commission presented in early March.

“

The workers consider that the necessary answers are not given.

We must fight against this policy of low wages, precariousness and deterioration of public services,

”said Isabel Camarinha, general secretary of the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers (CGTP), which organized the demonstration on Saturday.

“

This European summit is a disappointment.

It resulted in a series of good intentions and not a single concrete measure

, ”said the leader of the Left Bloc party (radical left), who joined the parade after holding a counter-summit with other leaders. of the European anti-liberal left.

Among the demonstrators, "

at least 3000

" according to a police source, Leonor Galamba made the trip from the suburbs of Lisbon to demand an increase in the minimum wage that she receives by working part-time in telemarketing.

The idea of ​​an upward convergence of minimum wages in the EU was one of the subjects raised by the leaders meeting in Porto, but also one of those which comes up against the divisions between European countries.