Greece approves scheme to fire thousands of public workers

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/17/us-greece-vote-
idUSBRE96G1AP20130717

(Reuters) - Greece's shaky coalition government scraped through a vote on
Wednesday on a bill to sack public sector workers as thousands chanting
anti-austerity slogans protested outside parliament.

The vote was the first major test for Prime Minister Antonis Samaras's
two-party coalition since losing an ally over the abrupt shutdown of the
state broadcaster last month, which left it with a scant five-seat
majority in the 300-seat parliament.

After midnight on Wednesday, 153 lawmakers out of the 293 present voted in
favor of the bill, whose passage was required to unlock nearly 7 billion
euros ($9.2 billion) in aid from European Union and International Monetary
Fund lenders.

The bill includes deeply divisive plans for a transfer and layoff scheme
for 25,000 public workers - mainly teachers and municipal police - that
had triggered a week of almost daily marches, rallies and strikes in
protest.

About 5,000 Greeks flooded the street outside parliament as the vote
neared, with some chanting: "We will not succumb, the only option is to
resist" and holding aloft black balloons - though turnout was much smaller
than in protests last year.

"After 12 years on the job, they fire us in one night," Patra
Hatziharalampous, a 52-year-old school guard in uniform said between sobs.
"If they have any guts, they should say no to the bailout and take some of
the bill's articles back."

The reforms were passed hours before German Finance Minister Wolfgang
Schaeuble - Europe's leading proponent of austerity blamed by many Greeks
for their woes - arrives in Athens for his first visit to Greece since the
debt crisis began in 2009.

Before the vote, Samaras announced Greece's first tax cut since its crisis
began nearly four years ago, in a bid to placate protests and an
increasingly restive public mood.

"We will not relax," Samaras said in a surprise television address to
announce that value-added tax (VAT) in restaurants would be cut to 13
percent from 23 percent starting August 1.

"We will continue climbing up the hill, we will reach the top, which is
not far, and better days will come for our people."

In a clip that became an instant hit on social media site Twitter,
television stations accidentally showed Samaras fumbling at an initial
attempt to read the statement and swearing "Damn my head, ******" as he
walked off the podium.

"DRAWING BLOOD"

The government had made a show of arguing for the restaurant VAT cut
during its latest talks with lenders, and analysts said the move was a
symbolic attempt to show austerity-hit Greeks that there was light at the
end of the tunnel.

Samaras said the cut would help curb tax evasion, a major problem in the
country and one of the reasons it slid into a debt crisis in 2009, but
warned that if evasion persisted VAT would revert to 23 percent.

"The crucial thing is that it was announced now and not after the summer,"
said Thomas Gerakis, head of Marc Pollsters. "How it will benefit
consumers remains to be seen."

Athens has been limping along on two bailouts worth over 240 billion euros
($315 billion) since 2010, which it has secured at the price of wage cuts
and tax rises that have triggered a six-year recession and sent
unemployment to 27 percent.

The latest bill agreed with lenders includes a luxury tax on houses with
swimming pools and owners of high performance cars.

But the move that has drawn the most anger is the plan to place 25,000
workers into the layoff scheme by the end of 2013, giving them eight
months to find another position or get laid off. Greece's public sector is
widely seen as oversized, inefficient and filled with patronage hires, but
many Greeks believe society can no longer go tolerate cuts or tax hikes.

Uniformed municipal police, garbage collectors in orange vests and
hundreds of other public sector workers have taken to the streets of
Athens almost daily on motorbikes in over a week of protests, blowing
whistles, honking horns and blaring sirens.

--
Barack Obama, reelected by the dumbest voters in the history of the United
States of America.

Eric Holder, racist black murdering United States Attorney General, still
has his job.

Nancy Pelosi, Democrat criminal, accessory before and after the fact to
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Obama ignored the brutal killing of an American diplomat in Benghazi, then
relieved American military officers who attempted to prevent said murder
in order to cover up his own ineptitude.

Obama continues his goal of disarming America while ObamaCare increases
insurance premiums 300% and leaves millions without health care.

Obama backed the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt prior to their removal for
failing to represent the people and constitutional violations.

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