Greek people in the streets again. by Milota Sidorova

Greek people are in the streets again. Greece is facing another strike. Thousands of citizen will fill the streets of Athens today to show their disagreement with the pension reform the government has proposed in an exchange to the IMF and Euro-zone 110-billion-euro loan. Investors saw the reform as well as the cutting package as an essential condition to assure the country would be able to pay debts. But even these deep cuts proposed by the government may not be enough for financial markets that decide about the fate of the country. Greeks protest against increasing retirement age and pension volumes. 157 member Greek Socialist government agreed on the reform on late Wednesday. The proposal was about to pass in 300-seat parliament the next day. But public will not know about today's decision, since journalist are joining 24-hour strike and there will be no news today. The strike will be joined even with Parliament workers and it is not known whether and how their absence ! is going to influence the voting process. Labour Minister Andreas Loverdos backed up the reform, suggesting Greece had to “put an end to the years of false prosperity.” Although strikes are kind of often in Greece these days, the poll has shown that about 50 percent of Greeks think that the reform is necessary. Along with this fact comes another one that the number of people taking part on the strikes is decreasing. Some suggest they are making up their mind, some are getting exhausting from non existing dialogue with the government. But for today, Athens will stagnate and freeze all its activities all day long.

related story (sgx17796): http://www.france24.com/en/20100708-greeks-strikers-set-prot...

by Milota Sid! orova for Cantell TV (http://cantell.tv)

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