Portugal risks social unrest over taxes, warns union chief

UGT union head João Proença tells Portuguese PM that tax move will fuel type of social strife seen in Greece

Portugal will suffer the kind of social unrest that has happened in Greece unless new tax rises are abandoned, the leader of its second largest union warned on Wednesday.

João Proença, head of the UGT union (General Union of Workers), said that workers would not accept a planned raise in their social security contributions from 11% to 18%.

After meeting Pedro Passos Coelho, the prime minister of Portugal, Proença declared that such "sacrifice" was not acceptable.

He said: "In addition to increasing social strife in the country, the measure will bring us closer to the situation in Greece, and on top of that there is a serious risk …that we return to a grave political crisis."

But Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany's finance minister, remarked on Portugal's progress since taking a bailout in May 2011. In a joint statement with the Portuguese finance minister Vitor Gaspar, the pair said competitiveness was improving, government spending was "now under control" and the structural deficit was falling.

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