- Title: GREECE: Protests expected as Greece votes on latest austerity
- Date: 7th November 2012
- Summary: VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WALKING IN STREET (SOUNDBITE) (Greek) 40-YEAR-OLD BANK EMPLOYEE, GEORGE POLITIS SAYING: "Patience is needed, but things have reached their limit. In general I think they have to find those who have money in off-shore companies and tax them, because we can no longer pay any more taxes. Those of us who cannot have our money or our wealth off-shore cannot b
- Embargoed: 22nd November 2012 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Greece
- Country: Greece
- Topics: Economic News,Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA1HH0IBTUC1K37ZQI5VVPP73RA
- Story Text: Tens of thousands of union workers planned to descend on the assembly on Wednesday (November 7) in a second day of a nation-wide strike that has brought most public transport to a halt and shut schools, banks and government offices as Greece's coalition government hopes to overcome its own divisions and defy protesters' fury at parliament's gates to push through an austerity package needed to secure an injection of aid and avert bankruptcy.
Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is expected to narrowly win support for the cocktail of budget cuts, tax hikes and labour reforms. The smallest party in his conservative-liberal coalition will oppose the measures, leaving him with a margin of just a handful of votes.
Backed by the leftist opposition, unions say the measures will hit the poor and spare the wealthy, while also deepening a five year recession that has wiped out a fifth of the Mediterranean country's output and driven unemployment to 25 percent.
"Patience is needed, but things have reached their limit. In general I think they have to find those who have money in off-shore companies and tax them, because we can no longer pay any more taxes. Those of us who cannot have our money or our wealth off-shore cannot be taxed any more," said 40-year-old bank employee, George Politis.
"We are sick of this, we are tired. All our patience has run out. Further to that all we can do is fight and see what happens," said 54-year-old civil servant Labros Doulas.
The wage cuts and tax hikes amounting to 13.5 billion euros by 2016 are demanded as the price for the next tranche of more than 31 billion euros (39.63 billion U.S. dollars) from a European Union/International Monetary Fund bailout.
The bailout was put on hold in recent months when it emerged Greece had fallen far short of earlier fiscal commitments.
The vote is the biggest test for Samaras' government since it came to power in June. A 'yes' vote will give Athens cash shore up its ailing banks and pay off debt coming due late this month. A 'no' could rend apart the fragile coalition.
Samaras has said the package will comprise the last cuts to wages and pensions, cold comfort for middle-class Greeks, whose living standards have plummeted in repeated deficit-slashing schemes that have hit wage earners and retirees hardest.
The austerity measures are accompanied by steps to make it easier for businesses to hire and fire workers, including reductions to severance pay and the warning employers must give workers before they let them go.
The junior ruling Democratic Left party has refused to support these, saying they have no bearing on Greece's fiscal targets under the bailout plan. A handful of MPs from the second ruling party, Socialist PASOK, have also wavered.
But the Democratic Left has pledged to vote "present" rather than "no" to the measures, which should allow Samaras' New Democracy and the remaining PASOK MPs to win a vote expected late on Wednesday with around 154 of Parliament's 300 seats.
The small leftist party has also said it will back the 2013 budget in a vote on Sunday, a second hurdle Greece must clear to receive the aid tranche and seen as a confidence vote in the government.
The protests will put deputies under added pressure, as throngs of detractors are expected to gather on parliament's doorstep in Syntagma Square, frequently the site of violent clashes between black-hooded demonstrators and police.
Crowd numbers are seen eclipsing the 16,000 that showed up in marches on Tuesday, union leaders said, as Greeks look for a way to denounce a government they accuse of sparing the country's wealthy from feeling the pain of the crisis.
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