简体中文
Subway stations in Portugal's capital Lisbon were closed on Thursday as metro workers in the city started a 24-hour strike against the government's new austerity measures enshrined in the 2014 state budget.
The metro service came to a standstill on 23:30 Wednesday night and will resume operation at 6 a.m. Friday. Traffic in the capital city has been clogged due to the strike although more buses are in service.
The strike coincides with the debate in the Parliament on the 2014 draft budget which includes more austerity measures such as more cuts in pensions and civil servant salaries.
The fresh austerity measures have sparked protests in the bailed-out country earlier this month.
The Portuguese government has to implement tougher austerity measures to meet the deficit reduction target of 4 percent of its GDP by the end of next year under a 78-billion-euro (about 101 billion U.S. dollars) bailout agreement clinched with the troika comprising the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the Eropean Central Bank in May 2011.
