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Greece rioting against EU press
Published: 11 March, 2010, 13:18
Edited: 26 March, 2010, 21:04
TAGS: EU, Protest, Politics, Europe, Economy
Greece is being brought to a standstill by another nationwide strike against government debt-reduction measures. The 24-hour walkout is already the second in the last ten days.
It has shut down public services, grounded flights and closed schools and hospitals.
Last week there was outrage and street protests after the government unveiled new measures to help curb its debt of more than $300 billion. The austerity package includes a rise in consumer taxes and a pension freeze.
The EU has pressured Greece into taking this harsh action, but has failed to offer any financial help.
“They're not difficult – these are inhuman measures!” says Greek pensioner Elisavet Ralakis. “No one has ever dared to implement them. And I believe that at some point the pot will boil over. People cannot tolerate all this.”
Nikos Fytas, a member of Communist labor movement and organizer of the protests, says that by taking such measures, the government is playing with people’s lives.
“It is vital for our lives because if you live with 700 euros, and you have to pay for the rent 400 euros, and they cut you by 140 every year, it’s a vital amount of money,” Fytas told RT. “But the point is…money is going to some particular people, to the rich people. They don’t pay what they have to pay to the government, that’s the reason the debt is growing and we have this problem. And I’m not sure the problem is in this kind of size that is declared by the government and the party that supports the government.”
“We have to declare here that we will not stop the demonstrations. We will not stop until the measures of the government will be removed,” Fytas added. “Because we will not have life from now on, we just survive.”
Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party, says countries like Greece and Spain should never have been allowed to join the Union.
“All of these countries joined the Euro ten years ago. As a result of that they had interest rates for seven or the first ten years that were much lower than they should have been, which meant they all had massive property booms that have now turned to bust,” Farage told RT. “And it’s becoming obvious to me, and, I think, to many people, that these countries – if they stay in the Euro – they’ve got no economic future whatsoever.”
“When the Euro was set up, there were some things called the Maastricht Criteria – they were the basic economic rules,” he added. “And French economists, German economists, Dutch economists said ‘For goodness sake, don’t let Greece in! They don’t meet the criteria.’ But of course, what the Euro was really about was politics more than economics. It was about locking people in and forming a United Sates of Europe. So, they ignored the rules, they let Greece in, they let Spain in – they simply should not have done so. But now there is a price to pay. And my guess is that at some point over next few weeks there is going to have to be a bail-out of Greece…”
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The policy of the Russian government of reaching deals with individual European states has been validated. No matter what happens to the EU ,Germany,France,Italy and Spain will continue to exist. But if the economic crisis is prolonged the EU may collapse entirely or reduce in size. Lets hope that Reserves of the Russian Central Bank are reorganized to increase the proportion of Gold Bullion and decrease the proportion of paper notes denoted in US dollars or EU euros.
Greece is most certainly in a spot of trouble both financially and politically and Greece may need to be literally shoved out of the Eurozone and probably Spain too, this will go to show all of the citizens of Europe that the much blessed Euro currency is a fickle currency some times it does not go your way and sometimes it does but one thing is for certain is that the Eurozone has taken an awful amount of European individual country Identity. I absolutely hope that one day the Euro be phased out and lets get straight back into the Pre-Euro days where each member of the European Union gets back their respective currencies like the French Franc,German Deutschmark,Spanish Peseta, and the Italian Lira these glorious old days were a sign of Individuality and great Country pride amongst the European community (You don't need the Euro to be European). So instead of one currency have Twenty Seven regional Currencies and have them become strong. As for Greece riots well I cannot blame them for expressing their feeling's of anger toward their government and their economical strife and peril, I hope that their Greek government does learn from this as the Greeks are fed up of monstrously high taxes and other financial woes. I can only offer great sympathy for the Greeks as this is certainly becoming a "Greek Tragedy" for a generation. Finally as for all other Countries in the European Union please for your sake go back to your glory days of your very own Currency and wave it up high a be proud of it and show that you are from what that bank note says. (The Euro Currency was simply just too soon and premature) because the Twenty Seven states in the European Union need's to in combination have strong economic strength and recover from the Twentieth Century's Intercontinental financial debt then think about the Euro option.