The sentences above could have been written yesterday, but they were published in 1978, 1983 and 2004, respectively. They serve to illustrate that what Southern European countries have experienced in 2011/12 is not new to Portuguese citizens. Since its inception, Portuguese democracy has had to deal with economic and financial crises and austerity measures, with the exception of the decade following European accession (Teixeira and Pinto 2012). Although the first decade after accession was one of slight growth and investment, Portugal’s economy has been performing extremely poorly again since the beginning of this century, when the euro entered circulation. This is so much so that the years between 2000 and 2010 have been named ‘the lost decade’(Reis 2013). Then, in May 2011, Portugal signed its third bailout agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Union (EU) and was forced to implement