Tens of thousands of angry protesters staged traditional May Day rallies in several countries of the crisis-wracked eurozone on Wednesday, as fury erupted at demonstrations in Bangladesh after a deadly building collapse.
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Although numbers were lower than in previous years, thousands took to the streets in Spain, some brandishing flags reading "6,202,700″, a reference to the record number out of work in the recession- hit country.
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"This austerity is ruining and killing us," read one banner in Madrid, blasting the unpopular German- led policy of squeezing budgets in response to the eurozone's three-year debt crisis as unemployment hit 27 percent of Spain's working population.
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Meanwhile, a strike in Greece stopped ferry services and disrupted public transport in Athens as workers marched against austerity in a country whose jobless rate is also around 27 percent.
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Waving brightly coloured protest flags, nearly 13,000 people answered the call of unions and leftist groups to rally in the country, facing its sixth year of recession and making painful job cuts in efforts to appease international creditors.
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Unemployment has reached a staggering 59 percent among Greece's under-25s.
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In France, where unemployment has hit a record high of 3.2 million people, the far-right National Front party of Marine Le Pen, which also traditionally marches on May 1, called for a light of hope in a France "locked in the darkness of Europe".
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France "is sinking into an absurd policy of endless austerity ... because it's about always saying yes to Brussels, to Berlin of course, and to financial moguls. in all circumstances," she said.