- Title: EUROZONE-GREECE-OCCUPIED MINISTRY Protesters occupy Greek finance ministry
- Date: 11th June 2015
- Summary: ATHENS, GREECE (JUNE 11, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF LARGE BANNER HANGING OUTSIDE GREEK FINANCE MINISTRY READING (Greek): "WE'VE BLED ENOUGH, WE'VE PAID ENOUGH" UNDER PICTURE OF LAST THREE GREEK PRIME MINISTERS: (FROM LEFT) GEORGE PAPANDREOU, ANTONIS SAMARAS, AND ALEXIS TSIPRAS AND THE BAILOUT DEALS EACH HAS SIGNED VARIOUS OF BANNER HANGING PROTESTERS AFFILIATED WITH THE CO
- Embargoed: 26th June 2015 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Greece
- Country: Greece
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA1NB8JS7O36WGC7Y1L90H95PKS
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Greek Communist party labour union supporters occupied the finance ministry on Thursday (June 11) and prevented staff from entering over fears that the government will agree to further concessions in order to come to a cash-for-reform deal with lenders.
As ratings agency Standard & Poor's downgraded Greek bonds deeper into junk status, questioning whether Athens can pay its debts, Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras held a new round of late-night talks on Wednesday (June 10) with the leaders of Germany and France and expressed confidence that a solution was at hand.
"The prime minister's statement about the (upcoming) deal and how it is going well, is a like a declaration of war on the working classes," said protester Effie Malliou.
Talks with lenders have been deadlocked over Greece's rejection of the creditors' demands for cuts in pensions and unpopular labour market reforms as conditions for releasing frozen bailout funds.
"There is no way we can endure any more under austerity, the working class's income has already suffered a lot," added Malliou.
The protesters chanted slogans on the ministry balcony and hung a large banner outside the ministry reading: "We've bled enough, we've paid enough" under a picture of the last three Greek prime ministers and the bailout deals each has signed.
Greece will be in default at the end of June without fresh funds to let it to repay 1.6 billion euros to the IMF. It put off a smaller repayment earlier this month under a rarely used IMF rule allowing it to combine all payments due in any month.
While both sides may be holding out to see if the other blinks first, time is running out and Tsipras faces pressure not just from left-wing hardliners but also from Greek voters, most of whom say they want to remain in the eurozone.
A poll showed a slight rise since April in the number who are dissatisfied with Tsipras's negotiating performance with the creditors, reaching 53.4 percent from 50.5 percent.
Tsipras has denounced creditors' demands to scrap an income top-up for the poorest pensioners and to refrain from unilateral moves to reintroduce collective bargaining or raise the minimum wage - policies that are anathema for his leftist Syriza party.
Brussels says he is free to put forward alternative measures provided the numbers add up to deliver a small primary budget surplus before debt service payments.
In a further complication, a Greek court ruled that the government should reverse cuts to private sector pensions it made in 2012 as a condition of its bailout agreement because the reductions deprived pensioners of the right to a decent life. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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