About 20,000 protesters demonstrated yesterday before the Parliament of Athens, against the new austerity measures taken by the Greek government, which have also caused the beginning of a 24-hour general strike.
The protesters fought the police, which used tear gas.
The ports, banks, hospitals and state owned companies in Greece ceased operations for the entire day, as the main two union confederations in the country protested the austerity measures and privatization planned by the Government led by PM George Papandreou. The activity of ferry- boats and public transportation was frozen yesterday. Some policemen and journalists also stopped work yesterday.
ADEDY, the largest union of public sector employees in Greece, and GSEE the largest private sector union were the initiators of the action - the third general strike this year.
"We are demanding the waiving of these tough and unfair measures imposed by the government, at the request of our creditors", the representatives of the GSEE said.
The government led by Papandreou wants to obtain 78 billion Euros (113 billion dollars) by lowering public spending and selling state owned assets. Yesterday, the Parliament of Athens began debating the new austerity measures which would allow savings of 28 billion Euros, which will supplement the target of 50 billion Euros expected to come from privatizations.
The measures taken by the authorities of Athens include among others, tax hikes and cutting wages in the public sector.
The authorities of Athens are hoping that in this way they will obtain additional financial aid after the package of 110 billion Euros that the EU, the IMF and the ECB provided them with in 2010.
"The government bears the responsibility of rescuing the country from bankruptcy", the spokesperson of the Athens government, George Petalotis said.
Proteste
