2011年6月3日星期五

Greeks demonstrate against austerity measures (AP)

Athens, Greece - approximately 30,000 people protested in Central Syntagma Square in Athens Sunday night against the difficult economic austerity policy.

The event, larger than many others that took place during the economic crisis of the Greece, seems to be the first resulting from spontaneous calls on social media like Facebook sites. Many others were organized by trade unions or political factions.

Pointing to the Parliament and its 300 legislators, many of demonstrators Sunday chanted "thieves!" Thieves! "Others shouted slogans against Prime Minister George Papandreou and the Monetary Fund International.

The violence has been reported and a few police officers were on the scene.

Papandreou, shaken by adverse opinion polls and protests like these, is committed to continuing its tax reforms.

Sunday, he put warning "sirens" appeal to the Greece default on its debt. Speaking to an audience of local officials in Western Greece, Papandreou said it is "foreign taxpayers money" which enabled his country to continue to pay the salaries of public sector and pensions.

Reforms are painful, but they are starting to pay off and the economy will return to growth in 2012, he said.

Two previously published surveys Sunday showed the Socialists governing nose to nose with the opposition conservatives. In a poll, the Conservatives led for the first time since that they have decimated in the elections, there are 20 months.

The inspectors of the debt of the European Union, the IMF and the European Central Bank are in Athens to monitor progress on European billion plan (155.8 billion) rescue year last loan deal for the Greece, which remains excluded from the bond markets and faced a deficit of potential funding in 2012. They will determine if Athens meets the criteria of an episode of June loan, a value of euro12 billion and vital to avoid a default value of the summer.

But austerity measures have significantly eroded incomes of many Greeks, provoking widespread anger and more depressing an economy already shrinking. The economic performance of the Greece fell from 4.5 percent in 2010 and should be reduced to a further 2.7% this year.

Popular anger on measures launched calls for the otherwise popular Greece, despite warnings by Ministers that the country cannot afford such an option.


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