Public services have ground to a halt in Greece as workers start a three-day general strike in protest at new bailout austerity measures they say will further decimate incomes.
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Greeks started a 48-hour nationwide strike today in anger at tax and pension reforms pursued by the indebted nation under terms of a multi-billion euro bailout it signed up to past year.
This will see the city face three days of action, as a 24-hour strike had already been scheduled for Sunday, resulting in public transport disruptions, along with the closure of schools, public service offices, and hospitals will have low numbers of staff on duty.
The bill is expected to make it through parliament but could provide a test of the unity of Greece’s two-party coalition government that holds 153 seats in the country’s 300-seat legislature. The government’s austerity measures are part of a multi-billion-dollar global bailout agreement.
After months of tumultuous negotiations with Greece’s global lenders – other European countries that use the euro and the worldwide Monetary Fund – Tsipras called a referendum and new elections last summer, dropping his anti-bailout stance and signing up instead to a third programme of rescue loans.
Greece needs the bailout funds to pay IMF loans, European Central Bank bonds maturing in July and growing state arrears, subject to lenders signing off on a review in its reform progress that includes changes to its tax and pension laws.
The strike comes ahead of a meeting of eurozone finance ministers to discuss Greece’s bailout on Monday in Brussels.
“Despite the parliamentary activity over the coming weekend, however, no major announcement on the ongoing first review of the bailout is expected to come from the eurogroup meeting”, said Wolfgango Piccoli of Teneo Intelligence.
Germany’s finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, has already made it very clear to the International Monetary Fund that there can be no debt relief, so it’s back to Greece and additional austerity measures and budget cuts.
Private sector union group GSEE described the bill as being the final nail in the coffin for workers and pensioners.
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Successful reforms implementation in Athens would unlock bailout funds under a financial programme agreed by Greece and euro zone countries in July and would pave the way for talks on Greece’s debt relief.
