Difficult days for Greek politicians

 Incredible things happen at an incredible rate those days in Greece.

On October 19^th, Athens saw a protest wholly unprecedented in size and anger. Furious crowds in the hundreds of thousands totally blocked the city center, filling Patission (from Mouseion on), Stadiou, Panepistimiou, Acadimias, Fillellinon and Amalias avenues all at once, while a general strike paralysed the entire country.

That day, the socialist government passed a law dismantling collective bargaining and allowing employers to slash private sector salaries almost at will.

Before Greeks had a chance to appreciate what this would mean to their lives, came Wednesdays “haircut”. The country is now officially bankrupt and so are, probably, pension funds that were forced to invest in Greek government bonds. The government is of course reassuring citizens that nothing worse will happen to their already slashed pensions.

 The haircut, a good thing in its own right, (if it really alleviated the debt burden , which it won’t) comes saddled with unprecedented conditions. EU-ECB-IMF “experts” will move into every ministry. According to premier Papandreou, this happens in order to avoid “the quarterly spectacle of troika controls”. There is a word for this kind of permanent foreign control and this is “protectorate”. That, at least, is the term used by Manolis Glezos.

Glezos, an icon of the Greek anti-nazi resistance had this to say after today’s events (events that were, well, unprecedented):

“The true spirit of October 28^th, 1940 was revived today in Thessaloniki. 71 years ago, the Greek people said no to the invaders. Today, in Thessaloniki, and also in Patras, Herakleion, Volos, Trikala and other cities, the Greek people said NO to the country’s submission to the troika and to its transformation into protectorate.

The country’s president was forced to leave. In reality, the official state withdrew and abolished itself. The parade happened in front of the People.

I do not agree with the abusive language used against the President of the Republic. But he should also understand that it is no longer possible for him to provide cover, through his status, to the government policy of submission”

The image of Greece today was an image of a country in revolt. From Rhodes in the south to Xanthi in the north and from Corfu in the west to Chios in the east, not a single parade went as planned. Eleytherotypia daily sums up the events

“Ministers, parliament members and other officials had already gotten the “message”. Very few of them dared to appear in the dignitaries’ platforms and only with draconian security measures in place, as did Education Minister Diamantopoulou at Syntagma. In many cases, however, not even this police protection was enough to prevent the outbursts of anger, resulting to parades being cancelled while ministers, parliamentarians and other dignitaries left, or were whisked away “.

 (TPP)