What’s Up in Greece on Dec 29? tagged: , , , ,

What’s Up in Greece on Dec 29?

Posted by keeptalkinggreece in Very Mix

Anger is up in Greece again as the taxation ’objective criteria’ for living and driving got increases out of control, they are up from 60% to 200%! Real estate and vehicle owners will see their property win in worth on the tax office papers. In times when incomes decrease, taxes increase for one more time, even thought the government claims there will be no new taxes. This dirty trick is being explained with the sentence  ‘these are not new austerity measures but they were approved some months ago and go into effect now.”

A bombshell landed in the tax evasion dispute, when two economic  prosecutors resigned on Wednesday claiming “interventions by economic interests”. In a parallel development, tax officers are on strike today and tomorrow, protesting their wages cuts and the labour reserve but also “the unjust policy of poll-taxes that has turned tax officers into scape goats of the public outrage” as they say. The strike takes place at the last two days of the year, while the state was eyeing revenues from emergency taxes.

Greek government has another front open with pharmacists. They will be on strike January 2nd and 3rd, 2012 to protest that insurance funds do not pay their debts. As of 1.1.12 pharmacists will not give prescription medicine on credit, so that patients will have to pay medicine from their own pockets. This inhuman decision, that will hurt especially the long-term ill, will be extended also to those insurance funds that have no debts.

The labour ministry gave the green light for lowering the lowest salary. The trick is called “young trainee”, aged 18-25 years. The new employee will be paid with 20% less than the National Collective Bargain, that is €600 gross, or four hundredsomething net for the period of two years. Young trainees will spend more for transport and other expenses while on work than the money they will bring home.

Nerves are blank also within the coalition government of PM Lucas Papademos with the elections to take part in the near future to boycott any effective function of the government.  PASOK is struggling to get rid of former PM George Papandreou from the party leadership. The party heirs are lining up in front of the throne,  but Papandreou does not seem very willing to go. Conservative Nea Dimokratia implies that elections should be held before Eastern and insist on participating half-hearted in the gov. Far-right LASO threatens to leave the coalition if the gov’t continues not to produce work…

A row broke out between the labour and the health ministers over the medication prescriptions to be issued by all doctors, whether they belong to new National Health Institution  or not.

In short: everybody is against everybody, and things won’t get better in the new year as well..