ATHENS (AFX) – to protest new pension cuts and an increase in the income tax, tens of thousands have demonstrated in Athens before Parliament. “Stop the austerity guillotine for our pensions,” it said on banners. Several hundred rioters threw Molotov cocktails on Sunday evening to the police officers used tear gas. Thousands fled, the situation calmed down.
The Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras campaigned forcefully to assent to the new austerity program for his country. Without reforms the Greek pension system would collapse, he said in the evening to complete a two-day debate in Parliament. “The pension system can not survive without a far-reaching reform,” Tsipras. Said
The Parliament should then vote in detail about pension cuts, with which 1.8 billion euros are to be saved. In addition to flow euros through tax increases in the state coffers further 1.8 billion. In the coming weeks, Parliament should decide on increases in indirect taxes in the amount of 1.8 billion euros.
The austerity measures are a prerequisite for further aid from the creditors of the bankrupt threatened country. The finance ministers of the euro group want to discuss on Monday in Brussels.
In order to demonstrate in front of parliament, the Communist trade union PAME had called. Police estimated the number of demonstrators at about 20 000. In the Parliament there was during the debate riots. After a dispute with violent insults between deputies of the right-wing party Golden Dawn and ministers the meeting was interrupted for about 40 minutes.
In the early afternoon called for about 3,000 people, in their majority members left organizations and journalists to the square in front of parliament the withdrawal of the law. “For us, this (law) is the grave stone of the pension system as we know it so far,” said one demonstrator on Greek television. “We are only a little pocket money instead of getting our pension,” said a woman.
The spokesman for the main opposition party New Democracy (ND) accused the government in a heated debate that it did not have the courage to to shrink rather than to cut pensions state area. ND chief Kyriakos Mitsotakis urged Tsipras to resign. He lied to the people and kept none of his promises. He had promised there would be no pension cuts and no tax increases. Tsipras have wasted time with pointless discussions with creditors and thus causes even more austerity measures for the rescue of Greece was necessary. . “That’s why you need to go, Mr. Tsipras,” Mitsotakis said
Government officials appeared confident hand: “. The parliament will approve the bill will not give deviants,” said a government spokesman on television. This is emphasized even several ministers in Parliament. The government under the left Premier Tsipras has a slim majority of 153 deputies in the parliament with 300 seats.
EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker sees the crisis country on the right track. “We are just at the first review of the program, and the objectives are almost achieved,” he told the newspapers of Funke Mediengruppe (Sunday).
The European finance ministers would lead on Monday “first discussions how to make the debt of Greece are sustainable “. Above all, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is for making strong, fast to negotiate debt relief. The subject must “immediately on the table,” wrote IMF chief Christine Lagarde at the 19 Euro zone countries.
In particular, the IMF calls for more austerity measures in an amount of 3.6 billion euros. However, the steps to be implemented only in the act, if the crisis country does not reach budget targets. The “austerity package in reserve” is controversial: The IMF allocates the Greek government in a much more precarious financial position than the Europeans a
The Europeans supported the IMF demand, because they want the International Monetary Fund in the third aid package. the amount of up to EUR 86 billion with on board. The government in Athens sees however no chance of getting such an anticipatory resolution through Parliament.
The IMF also demanded of the euro zone immediate negotiations on debt relief for Greece. A corresponding letter from IMF chief Christine Lagarde had confirmed an IMF spokesman in Washington on Friday. “I can confirm that there is the letter,” he says of the German Press Agency. Discussions on further budget cuts in Greece amounting to three billion euros were fruitless. to achieve the agreement with the EU, medium and long term a budget surplus (excluding debt service) of 3.5 percent of gross domestic product, is unrealistic. This goal must be revised down to 1.5 percent down
“We fool ourselves – that higher goal would not only be very difficult to achieve, it would be potentially counterproductive.” Lagarde wrote. To achieve 3.5 percent, Greece would still violent sparen./tt/axa/laj/DP/he
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