ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the first mass-scale mobilisations contesting austerity outside the trade union field, which – as eventful protests – brought new dynamics, players and claims into the protest arena in both countries. Nevertheless, it also reveals how, after this turning point, the two countries followed different paths: in Spain, there was a crescendo of social movement contentious activity; in Portugal, social movements never became leading actors, managing only to mobilise upon specific contingencies. This divergence results not only from different contextual opportunities, but also from the different capacities of emergent movements to establish an open and broad discourse and effective structures of mobilisation allowing them to go beyond their core of activists.
