Some 10,000 Portuguese held a May Day rally on Wednesday in Lisbon against the government's tough austerity measures implemented in exchange for bailout aids from international lenders.

Demonstrators walked about three kilometers from Martim Moniz Square in downtown Lisbon to Alameda Dom Afonso Henriques, their destination for the rally.

Holding high placards, the demonstrators chanted anti-government slogans, demanding that government raise salary, create more job opportunities and promote economic growth.

"We are demonstrating in the streets to fight for our rights deprived of by the government. At the meantime, we are also fighting for our posterity, otherwise they will encounter the same situation as we are facing now, even that they will lose more," an 82-year old woman protestor said.

Similar rallies organized by Portugal's main workers' union CGTP were also held in 50 cities across the country including Porto, Coimbra and Braga in the North.

Under a 78-billion-euro bailout agreement with the Troika comprising the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank in May 2011, Portugal has been implementing a harsh austerity program which has sparked widespread protests across the country in recent months.