In May 2011, the Eurozone crisis in Portugal led the co-called troika of the EU, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund to agree a €78billion bailout with ongoing review procedures. With unemployment at 15.2 percent–the third highest in the Eurozone after Spain and Greece–austerity measures to meet the bailout have included the scrapping of four out of 14 public holidays (that will be suspended for five years from 2013) and the cutting of public sector wages and raised taxes to reduce the budget deficit. The result has been a series of mass protests and two general strikes in the past year.
