Thousands take to street in Portugal for May Day

Thousands of people in Portugal on Monday marched from Lisbon's Martim Moniz square down to Alameda D. Afonso Henriques, calling on the government to raise salaries and improve working conditions.

The demonstrators chanted "People united will never be defeated," and waved trade union banners.

"We are here to fight to eradicate poverty," Rego Mendes, 74, a pensioner and freelance technical engineer, told Xinhua at the protest.

"Charity is not enough, we need policies to raise salaries, for the fiscal burden to take people's income into account and for health and education to be taken care of by the state," he added.

The protest was organized by Portugal's workers' union CGTP, and other events have also taken place across the country including gatherings, cultural and sport events.

According to the Portuguese trade union UGT, the workers' struggle has led the current Socialist government to raise the national minimum wage, restore four national holidays and the recovery of salaries. However, there are a lot left to achieve.

"We have low salaries compared to other European countries and we need to fight for better working conditions," said Ana Inacio, 21, unemployed, as she waved a banner. "We also need to fight for women's rights, we shouldn't be asked if we are going to have children at an interview."

Despite the country's debt level worsening following two bank rescues in 2014 and 2015, the current government has managed to maintain economic recovery and achieve political stability.

Prime Minister Antonio Costa has insisted on reversing austerity which was imposed by the previous administration after the country had to sign a 78 billion euro (85.1 billion U.S. dollars) international bailout in 2011. Endi