The stoppage in the flow of migrants put considerable pressure on the union to resume work, but PNO extended the length of its strike, saying that the government had made only “vague, worthless promises” in talks.
Advertisement
Hooded youth threw rocks and petrol bombs against police forces in front of the Finance Ministry and damaged bank branches, bus stops and cars in several incidents across a two kilometers zone. The next tranche – US$3 billion – has been held back this week until the Greek Government can meet the next set of targets. “My students are starving”. The money in the bailout fund had been earmarked for this goal already earlier but it is not yet clear whether the entire sum of €10 billion will be needed.
The decision triggered outrage from Greeks, who argue Tsipras came to power in January with anti-austerity vows.
He then accepted the unpopular terms of Greece’s third bailout when faced with the prospect of an exit from the eurozone. This must have been the first time – ever – that a ruling political party has supported a strike in protest against its own policies. Grigoris Kalomoiris, who sits on the executive committee of Adedy, the civil servants’ trade union, said: “As industrial action goes it was very successful”.
“The winter is going to be explosive and this will mark the beginning”, said Mr. Kalomoiris. The Tsipras government is pressured to implement further social insurance savings, which translates to pension cuts.
Advertisement
For a third of them, sales shrank by more than 70 percent as consumption contracted by 50 percent, or 3.8 billion euros, the survey found. Many enterprises were unprepared for the consequences of the controls and the three-week closure of banks, Gsevee said. Failure to reach an accord with euro-area member states and the global Monetary Fund on policies including primary residence foreclosures, and stricter rules on overdue taxes, would put the solvency of the country’s lenders in doubt. “This wasn’t necessary, it could have been avoided, and the government will now implement deeper cuts to achieve less ambitious fiscal targets”. But because nonperforming loans are one of the biggest problems undermining Greek banks, the creditors want to give the banks more flexibility on when they can foreclose on mortgages or declare business borrowers to be in default. A few in the private sector and even small businesses see the latest shutdown as a stunt that’s only going to hurt business and dampen the weakened market.
