EUROZONE-GREECE/RALLY Greeks strike against austerity before vote on new bailout bill

Record ID: 144079

  • Title: EUROZONE-GREECE/RALLY Greeks strike against austerity before vote on new bailout bill
  • Date: 13th August 2015
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF CROWDS AT RALLY HOLDING FLAGS
  • Embargoed: 28th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Greece
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA4M3J4006XTGZ5T5U8JZ998T5F
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Thousands of striking Greeks took to the street of the capital Athens and marched to parliament on Thursday (August 13) to protest against austerity measures that would be imposed by the latest bailout deal agreement reached between officials and the country's foreign creditors.
    Several thousands people including workers and pensioners marched through the streets, chanting and waving flags.
    Greek lawmakers are due to vote on the bailout deal in the coming hours which pledges tax hikes and spending cuts in exchange for 85 billion euros in fresh loans. It will be Greece's third financial rescue programme agreed with creditors in five years.
    Far-left faction leader of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras's Syriza party on Thursday called for a new movement to fight the bailout deal.
    The vote will test the strength of a rebellion by anti-austerity Syriza lawmakers, which could raise pressure on Tsipras to call snap elections as early as September.
    Communist party leader Dimitris Koutsoumbas, who joined demonstrators on Syntagma Square outside the parliament building, warned new austerity measures would hurt the Greek public.
    "In a few hours the third Tsipras MOU (memorandum of understanding) will be a reality, the governing coalition of Syriza and independent Greeks, with their partners in opposition - New Democracy, PASOK, and TO POTAMI - will vote for the new slaughter of the Greek people, of Greek youth. The Greek people have no alternative but to organise their battle. Their resistance in every way , each day, over the coming period," said Koutsoumbas.
    "Today every worker must align itself with this class movement and fight against this third, the worst, MOU which has ever existed," said demonstrator Christos Karamanos. "This crushes all labour rights in Greece, the working class must struggle and resist, it must take life and the struggle into its own hands."
    Parliamentary speaker Zoe Konstantopoulou, one of the Syriza hardliners who oppose the deal, snubbed a request from Tsipras to speed up handling of the bailout bill so that it can be voted on well before eurozone finance ministers meet in Brussels to vet the agreement deal on Friday (August 14).
    After a day largely of arguments over procedure, parliament had yet even to start its plenary debate at 10 p.m. (1900 GMT), meaning that no vote can be held until well into the night.
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