Largest Unions Have Called For Rallies In The Next Several Days.

 

March 03, 2010 (Hamsayeh.Net) - The Greek government has finally received the cabinet’s approval for an austerity program that would help save about 6 billion euros this year. The government plans to raise 3 billion from spending cuts and another 3 billion from tax increases.

 

The new measures would include an increase on fuel tax, a 2 percent increase in value added tax that brings it to a total of 21 percent as well as a freeze on government pensions.

 

These sweeping measures come at the time when there are massive general strikes across the country. The latest group to join the strikes pensioners. According to Al Jazeera, people are extremely upset and blame the government for the current economic misery. Greece’s largest union  Adedy with 300,000 members has organized some rallies during the next coming days. Other large unions also join in the demonstrations across major cities.

 

Greece was one the first European states that joined the neo-liberal financial restructuring plan after the collapse of former Soviet Union. It  experienced a short period of high prosperity, but soon fell victim to the last great depression of 2008. Since then the country has accumulated billions of dollars in deficit, unable to repay its large debts.