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POLITICIANS IN GREECE will vote today on intensely unpopular new austerity measures as the country remains paralyzed by a two-day general strike.
Protesters were again headed to Athens’ main Syntagma Square this morning, while one communist party-backed union vowed to encircle parliament in an attempt to prevent lawmakers from accessing the building for the vote on spending cuts and tax hikes required by Greece’s international creditors.
The bill – needed to secure continued payment from an international bailout fund – won initial approval in a first vote Wednesday night, and deputies are now to vote on the details, which include the suspension on reduced pay of 30,000 public servants and the suspension of collective labor contracts.
Creditors have demanded the measures before they give Greece more funds from a €110 billion package of bailout loans from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund. Greece says it will run out of money in mid-November without the next €8 billion instalment.
Today’s protests come a day after a massive demonstration by more than 100,000 people degenerated into violence, with groups of black-clad demonstrators pelting riot police with chunks of marble, paint and gasoline bombs. Police responded with volleys of tear gas and stun grenades that reverberated across the Greek capital’s main square.
The clashes continued sporadically into the night in the back streets near Syntagma, where protesters set fire to piles of garbage festering on the streets after a strike by municipal workers.
Authorities said 50 police and at least three protesters were injured in the clashes.
The second day of the general strike Thursday was disrupting public transport and left ships docked at port, schools and customs offices closed and state hospitals running on emergency staff. All public services were shut, while lawyers and prison guards were among those staying away from work.
It has to come down at some point. The trends historically go up and down. Never permanently in one direction. All this talk of no recession, if one happens in the USA, there’s one here too. Economy is boiling over, costs of living are ridiculously high.
@Michael Mc Gee: GDP growth is just a relative measure compared to the previous year. We grew at over 10% in both 2021 & 2022, so it’s inevitable we will experience a “recession” unless we keep growing at those unsustainable rates. Just a technical recession.
@Michael Mc Gee: and a massive housing crisis to add to it all fueled by a tick government asleep at the wheel,get used to sofa surfing more is yet to come
Cost of living out of control in some sectors, price of fuel going up in a few days, the push to get people back to offices 5 days a week despite promised to make wfh or hybrid work which would help reduce costs on taxpayers and also take extra traffic off the roads, all going down where most of the promises of FFG go. The over reliance on FDI’s and the insanity of allowing this current government to giveaway surplus to win votes and then ride off into the sunset with their fat accounts and massive pensions for the next saps who get voted in, and laugh from the opposition benches when all their giveaways are having to be taken back cos they have helped cook this economy and drive the country closer to an actual full blown recession…..sure its all grand lads
@Tom Newell: I WFH full time since 2020. You just have to put your foot down – refuse long commutes, refuse to return to offices, quit your job. I did, twice, so that I could remain working from home. I live 1.5 hrs from my employers office, so returning to the office is never going to happen.
@MTB Mayo: If I was your employer I’d have sacked you.
@MTB Mayo: You are so lucky to be able to decide for yourself…if just a few become unemployed that could change. If you are based in Mayo thank your deity for the great turnaround in that lovely county. It’s really a short time ago when there was nothing in it except it’s beauty…then along came a certain James Horan and his band of volunteers.
@MTB Mayo: Great advice.
@Tom Newell: Over reliance of FDI? Ireland has few natural resources & is therefore reliant on an active workforce. No government policy can change this, unless we return to the 70s/80s when many people had nothing.
Investment is needed in order to make a workforce productive. As a (relatively) small economy, there is a need for international companies to bring this productivity.
Wouldn’t want to work for you anyway
@: I doubt you’d have the cop on to run a business
What happened in 2015 when the Irish economy “grew” by 25% was simply that Apple transferred all iPhone-related IP to Ireland. There was absolutely no increase in delivering products or services. Leprechaun economics indeed!
@Corey Dalton: Such is the opaque nature of these tax-related shenanigans that this fact did not become clear until a few years later.
@Corey Dalton: Gross = made up
We need a good recession to drive down the cost of everything. Completely gone out of hand.
@Lonely Are the Brave.: That would be great, except deflation is even worse than inflation. If people knew that the price of, let’s say building materials was going to get cheaper every month, sure then why bother doing anything, just sit tight, don’t spend anything and wait until the price hits the right level. That is how economic depressions start.
The lies are getting smaller
Funny how all this govt income is going down just before budget day
We all partied…
@brian o’leary: not that kind of recession
The government are laughing at us, with major international distractions and the egregious left agenda. Martin & side kick are screaming about the UN while our own victims are being trampled upon. Now they’re giving poor folk a Christmas present hoping it will shut them up while the economy is shrinking even though the multinationals are paying the wages for a majority in services and related economy and employment. The games are about to begin for Leprechaun economics and it’s not going to be pretty. We voted them in. We’ll pay the price because the fundamentals were ever only about one thing. Them.
It used to be called a recession.
If there was honest reporting of the state of the economy in the first place there’d be a much clearer picture, the manipulation of figures to create a positive image fools nobody involved in International Economics, we’re a laughing stock in the EU for the manner of unreliable and inaccurate economic reports issued by the government
The fundamentals are sound
I’m sure it’ll be a “soft landing”.
have your say