The Greek people has to pay the price again

grequesartDisrupted transport, canceled flights, closed schools: the month of May 2017 was hectic again in Greece. The general strike aimed to protest against further austerity measures.

 

A law has just been approved in the Greek Parliament to endorse the measures requested by the creditors to unblock a new tranche of loan. The law will impact again the standard of living of the Greek people by imposing a 4.9 billion euros cut in pensions and tax increases. Greek pensioners regularly see their pensions decline since 2010 and are afraid they will no longer be able to cope financially.

 

For Athanasia Lambrinea, vice-president of the Greek Federation of Pharmaceutical Employees, tax increases are likely to contribute to economic paralysis.

It should be said that the three successive programs of loans granted to Greece since 2010 have not succeeded in stimulating the economy.

 

The law was voted 153 to 128. That is the condition for the Eurogroup to grant the next tranche of bailout. This would lead to a reduction in the Greek debt and would allow to enter fairly quickly the ECB (European Central Bank) bonds program and thus to return to the markets.

 

This vote gave rise to new protests only one day after the end of the general strike. However, this law contains a series of countermeasures to counterbalance the financial efforts of the population: increase in the rate of reimbursement of medicines for the pensioners with the lowest incomes, increase in the number of crèches, free school feeding. But these countermeasures would be applicable only if Greece meets the primary surplus targets set at 3.5% of GDP in 2018, but the IMF is rather skeptical about achieving this target