GREECE: Greeks prepare for massive anti-austerity protest

Record ID: 340542

  • Title: GREECE: Greeks prepare for massive anti-austerity protest
  • Date: 16th June 2011
  • Summary: PIRAEUS, GREECE (JUNE 15 2011) (REUTERS) FERRY BOATS TIED TO DOCK AT PORT OF PIREAUS VARIOUS OF FERRY BOATS SITTING IN PORT ATHENS, GREECE (JUNE 15 2011) (REUTERS) ATHENS RAILWAY STATION, TRACKS EMPTY VARIOUS OF EMPTY TRACKS STATION PLATFORM EMPTY
  • Embargoed: 1st July 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Greece, Greece
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: Economy,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA3XJST5FKVRHML0YT372FEKQCO
  • Story Text: Several streets in the Greek capital Athens were cordoned off by police on Wednesday (June 15) while officers were out in force ahead of various protests by workers and other demonstrators expected to converge at parliament.
    Greek unions readied to strike and demonstrators prepared to cordon off parliament by holding hands around the parliament to protest the Socialist government's efforts to approve a fresh round of austerity for the debt-stricken euro zone state.
    Prime Minister George Papandreou must push through a new five-year campaign of tax hikes, spending cuts and selloffs of state property to continue receiving aid from the European Union and International Monetary Fund and avoid default.
    He not only faces daily protests and resistance from a conservative opposition that has surpassed his Socialist party in opinion polls, but backbenchers in his own parliamentary grouping are also threatening to reject the plan.
    Tens of thousands of grass-roots activists and unionists vowed to converge on Athens' central Syntagma square on the assembly's front steps on Wednesday as Papandreou's PASOK party discusses the measures and opens talk on them in committee.
    The new deal envisions 6.5 billion euros worth of tax hikes and spending cuts this year, almost doubling measures already agreed with bailout lenders that have pushed the jobless rate to a record high 16.2 percent and deepened a recession.
    The government has appealed for national consensus on the laws, on which the EU and IMF have conditioned the release of another 12 billion euros in aid next month that Athens needs to pay off maturing debt.
    "I am 25 years old. I don't know what will happen in my future. I am very angry about the current situation and if we don't come out to protest who will?" said one protester, Maritina Efidaki.
    Among other items, the mid-term plan includes new luxury taxes, a proposed crackdown on rampant tax evasion, increased taxes on soft-drinks, cars, swimming pools and real estate for a total savings of 28 billion euros through 2015.
    It also entails cutting the Mediterranean state's 750,000-strong public workforce by a fifth over that period and raising 50 billion euros by selling off state-owned firms.
    Ferry and train schedules were cancelled, public services were disrupted, and shops were to be closed for three hours as workers from various sectors joined in the general strike organized by Greece's two main trade unions.
    Hospitals also worked on skeleton staff while journalists joined in the action, cancelling news bulletins.
    Euro zone finance ministers, aiming to finalise a second aid deal at a June 23-24 summit, are pressing ahead with plans to make private creditors share the costs of a second bailout, although the European Central Bank opposes the plan and says it could shock global markets and put weaker euro states at risk.
    Eurozone finance ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday (June 14) failed to resolve their differences 10 days before the EU summit where leaders are due to make a final decision. EU Finance ministers plan to meet next Monday in Luxembourg to come up with an agreement.
    PASOK has a majority in the Greek parliament and is expected to push through the deal by the end of the month as planned, possibly with a handful of opposition deputies voting for it as well.
    But one PASOK deputy defected from its parliament group on Tuesday, cutting its numbers to 155 of the chamber's 300 seats, and another deputy said he would not back the package.
    Many others also oppose the plan. Public sector union ADEDY, representing half a million workers, said it would join other demonstrators in peaceful protest. Trains stop, ports will shut and hospitals will cut staffing. Airports will stay open.
    Passing the plan will be the first step, to be followed by another set of laws on how to implement it. Analysts said that the plan was likely to make into law despite all the hurdles.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register