Public health services in Portugal were disrupted on Tuesday in the first day of a 48-hour strike by doctors demanding higher wages and better working conditions.
According to the National Federation of Doctors (Fnam), which initiated this seventh strike call in the space of a year and a half, around two thirds of the 31,000 doctors in the national health service have joined the movement, causing the cancellation of thousands of non-urgent consultations and operations.
"We are among the worst paid doctors in Europe," FNAM president Joana Bordalo e Sa told AFP.
"We are the professional category in Portugal that has lost the most purchasing power in the last ten years," she added on the sidelines of a demonstration by doctors in front of the Ministry of Health in Lisbon.
Since coming to power following the early legislative elections last March, the new moderate right-wing minority government has had to respond to the demands of several categories of civil servants.
The executive of Prime Minister Luis Montenegro thus reached compromises with teachers, clerks and then the police.
Negotiations also resulted in an agreement with five nursing unions on Monday, paving the way for pay rises. A sixth organization representing nurses has called for a two-day strike to coincide with that of doctors.
Caught between socialists ousted from power after eight years in power and a far right that is making strong progress, the government does not have an absolute majority in Parliament.
The Iberian country risks a "political and economic crisis" if the government and the socialist opposition do not reach an agreement to adopt the state budget for 2025, President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa warned on Monday.
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