Greek protesters demand end to government austerity plans
Source: Agencies |
June 16, 2011, Thursday
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THOUSANDS of Greek demonstrators massed at parliament and workers launched a national strike yesterday to protest against the government's efforts to approve new austerity measures 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 sell-offs of state property to continue receiving aid from the European Union and International Monetary Fund and avoid default.
He not only faces public 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.
Thousands of activists and unionists converged on Athens' central Syntagma square on the parliament's front steps to try to prevent deputies from debating the measures.
"Thieves, traitors!" many chanted. "Where did the money go?"
"I feel rage and disgust," said 45-year-old public sector worker Maria Georgila, a mother of two. "These are very tough measures and they won't get us out of the crisis. I can't believe they have no alternative."
Around 1,500 police closed a swathe of the city center and erected two-meter metal barricades in front of parliament and surrounded it with police vans and a water canon.
The deal foresees 6.5 billion euros (US$9.4 billion) in tax hikes and spending cuts this year, doubling measures agreed with bailout lenders that have pushed unemployment to a record 16.2 percent and extended a deep recession into its third year.
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 or face default.
"We are fighting the battle to serve the common good, in the most crucial moment in the country's modern democracy," government spokesman George Petalotis told reporters.
The mid-term plan includes new luxury taxes, a crackdown on tax evasion, increased taxes on soft-drinks, cars, swimming pools and real estate, and cutting the Mediterranean state's 750,000-strong public work force by a fifth.
With those measures worth total savings of 28 billion euros through 2015, it also aims to raise 50 billion euros by selling state-owned firms.
Prime Minister George Papandreou must push through a new five-year campaign of tax hikes, spending cuts and sell-offs of state property to continue receiving aid from the European Union and International Monetary Fund and avoid default.
He not only faces public 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.
Thousands of activists and unionists converged on Athens' central Syntagma square on the parliament's front steps to try to prevent deputies from debating the measures.
"Thieves, traitors!" many chanted. "Where did the money go?"
"I feel rage and disgust," said 45-year-old public sector worker Maria Georgila, a mother of two. "These are very tough measures and they won't get us out of the crisis. I can't believe they have no alternative."
Around 1,500 police closed a swathe of the city center and erected two-meter metal barricades in front of parliament and surrounded it with police vans and a water canon.
The deal foresees 6.5 billion euros (US$9.4 billion) in tax hikes and spending cuts this year, doubling measures agreed with bailout lenders that have pushed unemployment to a record 16.2 percent and extended a deep recession into its third year.
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 or face default.
"We are fighting the battle to serve the common good, in the most crucial moment in the country's modern democracy," government spokesman George Petalotis told reporters.
The mid-term plan includes new luxury taxes, a crackdown on tax evasion, increased taxes on soft-drinks, cars, swimming pools and real estate, and cutting the Mediterranean state's 750,000-strong public work force by a fifth.
With those measures worth total savings of 28 billion euros through 2015, it also aims to raise 50 billion euros by selling state-owned firms.
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