What’ Up in Greece on Feb 3/12? tagged: , , ,

What’ Up in Greece on Feb 3/12?

Posted by in Very Mix

Heartbeat is up in Greece as the debt-ridden country enters the most critical 48 hours of its live. The progress and conclusion of  PSI, the Greek bond swap, andon loan agreement for the second bailout will decide whether the country will stay in the euro zone or not. Until Sunday, Greece has to put its signature on the provisional MoU, on the second Memorandum of Understanding, and political leaders have to sign their commitments. The PSI deal must also be completed by Sunday, a day before a crucial eurogroup meeting on the issue on Monday. This is generally what national and international media write.

However, Greek economic news portal Capital.gr , writes about a possible Plan B, that is a loan of 15 billion euro so that Athens can redeem the €14.4-billion bond that expires on march and threatens to lead the country into bankruptcy, would it be unable to redeem it.

Hackers associated with the activist group Anonymous defaced the website of Greek Justice Ministry and posted a two-minutes protest video in English. The hackers said the were protesting against against Greece’s EU and IMF-inspired austerity policies.”You have joined the IMF against your people’s acquiescence… democracy was given birth in your country but you have killed it,” they said in the video. units from the Electronic Crime Dept. of Greek police investigate the issue trying to trace the electronic fingertips of the hackers.(Reuters, To Vima). 

International Criminal Court of The Hague has ruled on a German request to order Italy to stop its courts from admitting compensation claims for Nazi war crimes. The ruling will directly affect the victims of the German massacre at Distomo in Greece, in which 218 people were killed. ICJ  judge president Hisashi Owada has already started to read the decision. (expatica.com). I will post separately when the decision has been announced.

The ice cold weather front started to move away from Greece, at least in the south parts of the country. However dozens of villages are isolated due to heavy snow fall in the North, where also schools are closed in many areas.

The association of truck owners from Thessalia, Central Greece and Western Macedonia will sue “everyone responsible” like the state and the highway maintenance companies for banning trucks from the highways for some 24 hours due to bad weather conditions. The truck owners say that there was no serious reason for this decision that endangered tons of ‘sensitive’ products and left drivers at the highways without supplies.

30% of the Greeks work withtout social security according to data from IKA-ETAM, Greece’s biggest insurance fund. That is one out of three. I guess, employees are happy to have a job, even if it without insurance. We have to feed kids, parents and ourselves, guys….

The Health Ministry targets to save 1.1 billion euro. It plans to issue guidelines about what medicines doctors will prescribe to each disease. Any medicine against poverty?

Union GENOP-DEH, the union of workers at public power company claim that 500,000 people have not paid the emergency property tax. The finance Ministry considers to extend the deadline for cutting off electricity to tax dodgers from three to four months.

Potato farmers from Nevrokopi will distribute free of charge 10 tons of Greece’s best potatoes to residents of Thessaloniki tomorrow at the Agrotica fair. The farmers will protest the low prices of potatoes.