Anti-austerity movement

The anti-austerity movement refers to the mobilisation of street protests and grassroots campaigns that has happened across various countries, especially in Europe, since the onset of the worldwide Great Recession.

Since the onset of the economic recession in Europe, the political establishment response has increasingly focused on austerity: attempts to bring down budget deficits and control the rise of debt.

[4] Economist Thomas Piketty welcomed the political reaction to austerity, saying the rise of anti-austerity parties is "good news for Europe".

According to Piketty, European countries tried to get rid of their deficits too quickly, resulting in a situation where "their citizens have suffered the consequences in the shape of austerity policies.

[49] The fact that the political sphere has been so heavily influenced by a paper known as "Growth in a Time of Debt" based on flawed methodology has led Krugman to argue:[50] What the Reinhart–Rogoff affair shows is the extent to which austerity has been sold on false pretenses.