adminThe protesters gathered outside ERT’s offices in Athens and Thessaloniki to call on Prime Minister Antonis Samaras to reverse his decision to pull the plug on the broadcaster as part of sweeping cost-cutting measures.
ERT employees, stunned by the sudden loss of their jobs, were defiantly transmitting rogue broadcasts on the Internet and the Communist party television channel.
The government responded with the threat of legal action.
“Any broadcasts carrying ERT’s signal are unauthorised . . . and can be sanctioned under the law,” the finance ministry said in an email to operators, released by Greek media.
The 24-hour strike called by the major trade unions to support ERT workers saw trains and buses grinding to a halt and and left hospitals operating on emergency footing.
Air traffic controllers held a two-hour work stoppage while broadcast journalists were on an indefinite strike over the government’s shock move.
“This has to stop,” said Olga Papaiossif, a 41-year-old pre-school teacher as she protested in Athens.
“They want to sell everything in Greece, the TV, the water, everything. And in the rest of Europe too,” she told AFP.
Greek media yesterday raised the prospect of early elections, warning that Prime Minister Samaras could have pushed his coalition allies too far this time.
The socialist and moderate leftist supporting his government are already facing internal pressure over the unpopular austerity measures Greece has been applying for a fourth year.
As if on cue, the state data agency yesterday said the jobless rate had climbed to 27,4 percent in the first three months of the year, from 26 percent a year earlier. — AFP.
Online Reporter