Press Review June 26: Thermopylae for sale

Thermopylae, the site of the heroic last stand of Leonidas and 300 Spartans, is for sale; court decisions open a 1 billion euro hole in the budget; opposition to the privatization of the ‘little’ PPC calls for demonstrations; 640,000 jobless will have to change jobs or cities to find work; and foreign giants are coming to Greece.

The Press Project
26 Ιουνίου 2014 | 11:32:39

	ELEFTHEROTYPIA Those who supposedly were tasked with protecting it, Are now SELLING OFF Thermopylae too Yet another location with great historical importance is coming to light thanks to the ‘for sale’ sign the Hellenic Asset Development Fund (HRADF) is hanging on it! So, the thermal springs of Thermopylae will pass to private hands together with 785,398 sq. meters of the surrounding area. The interested buyers are informed by the HRADF’s website – and not at all by chance – about the cultural significance of the area, with references to Hephaistos, Hercules and of course, the battle of Thermopylae and the legendary ‘no’ to the passage of the Persians said by the 300 of Leonidas and 700 Thespians. All this should be a joke, but it isn’t! Yet another serious incident to the clearance sale – with installments and at discount prices – of the country.
	TA NEA Court decisions open fiscal hole They are searching for 1 billion euros, for judges and uniformed state workers Decisions by the highest courts which ruled in favour of judges and uniformed state employees are creating a headache for the government: the financial committee calculates that the cost of the reinstatement of all of the special pay-scales to the levels of 2012 will reach 1 billion euros, and it is examining ways to avoid this tsunami or to restrict the hole in public finances.
	EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON ‘Little’ PPC is a big issue A call has been issued for citizens to gather tonight at 8 in the central square of Ptolemaida (a main electricity producing are of Greece with several coal-fired power plants) and at the gates of power stations in Eordaia, Amyntaio and Florina by the residents of the outlying towns who are resisting the plans of the coalition government to carve up of the Public Power Corporation and privatize its ‘choice cuts’. Alexis Tsipras will speak about the need to block the plans of New Democracy and PASOK at a central hotel to an audience of representatives of social, union and political groups.
	KATHIMERINI About 640,000 jobless in Greece will have to seek employment in another sector and another city More than half of today’s unemployed – about 640,000 will have to search for work in another sector than that which they used to work in, and 500,000 of them will have to leave Athens and Thessaloniki in order to return to the labour force. According to a study by Endeavor Greece which was conducted with a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, aside from technology, the sectors which demonstrate the greatest potential for growth in Greece mainly concern activities outside the major urban areas such as tourism, agricultural production and food processing, but also to a large degree, logistics. The attempt to find work in sectors such as construction, processing (aside from the food industry), retail, medicine, and the provision of legal services is, to a large degree, a dead end. Two out of three jobs that were lost during the crisis will not be replaced in the same sector, according to the study. However all those who have the necessary qualifications have found a way out abroad. In only the first five months of 2014, 50,000 people emigrated.
	IMERISIA The foreign colossuses are coming to Greece An information hub to be created in Athens by Dow Chemical and IBM The Chinese Foxconn is interested in an assembly plant for iPhones and iPads in Thriasio. There is significant interest in the tender for the construction of a freight center in Thriasio with 28 interested parties.