epa03470441 Main opposition Socialist party PSOE’s parliamentarians hold posters supporting the general strike during a plenary session at the Lower Chamber in the Spanish Parliament, in Madrid, Spain, 14 November 2012. PSOE’s leader Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba asked the Government to change its economic policy to avoid that many people ‘get left behind’ due to the crisis coinciding with the first joint general strike on the Iberian Peninsula. The general strike was called to protest government austerity policies that trade unions see as strangling the economy and impoverishing the population. The strike affected rail and bus traffic, the Madrid and Lisbon undergrounds, ports, factories, cleaning services and wholesale food markets, according to union representatives. EPA/JAVIER LIZON