adminATHENS. – Thousands of civil servants protested in Greece yesterday at the start of a fresh strike against job cuts pushed by the government in return for international bailout loans.
At least 3 000 people demonstrated in Athens, chanting slogans against the coalition government of conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and Greece’s EU-IMF creditors. Another 3 500 protesters marched in Thessaloniki, according to police.
“You’ve sold islands and ports, now sell your mother and get out of here, you bastards,” a crowd sang outside the administrative reform ministry, which is spearheading the civil service cuts.
“Today’s strike is a struggle for life itself, for survival, for the right to the quality of life that has been taken from us,” Apostolos Tsiamos, a local council employee, told AFP.
“I have lost 50 percent of my salary from 2010 to today, but what upsets me more is that I have two kids studying at university and I see no future for them,” added Dimitris Perivolarakis, a school literature teacher.
One woman, a pensioner of former state carrier Olympic Airways, silently held a banner reading: “I bow and pay my respects to your remains, Greece.” – AFP.
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