The global economic crisis had major social and political impact on European societies. The political consequences of the crisis mainly stem from rising unemployment, the freezing or cuts of public sector pay, declining purchasing power, pessimism about future developments and perceptions of bad governance. In this context, a new wave of protest has spread across Europe as a reaction to the austerity measures adopted during the economic crisis. Governments' inability to deal with the crisis has

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... generated in many places anxiety, which then turned into popular anger. People who have been hard hit by the crisis placed most of the blame with incumbent governments and condemned the corruption and lack of political responsibility of the political class in general.