The Panhellenic Federation of Police Officers wrote an open letter to the Troika representatives and warn them that it will ask to issue warrants against them. In the letter addressed to Poul Thomsen (IMF), Klaus Mazouch (ECB) and Servas Derose*(EU), Greek police unionists send the message that they will ask the issue of warrants against the Troika inspectors.
“For two years, the National Federation of Police Officers has warned you about the policies you dictate and require to be implemented with the “pistol to the temple” will tear apart the social cohesion and will kill all hope for the restore of the Greek economy.”
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“As legitimate representatives of the Greek police we wanrn you that we will ask the issue of warrants and arrests orders against you for a series of laegislation violations, like extortion, promotion of covered up elimination or reduction of our democratic regime and the national sovereignty, the interference in other essential goods of the Greek people etc”
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“We all ask changing of policies and safeguarding the interest of working people and all of us who now live under the poverty line.”
“We warn that we refuse to come against our parents, our brothers, our children, against every citizen protesting and requiring change of policy course.” (Full Letter in Greek here)
Between chat and fun the Police Officers promised a symbollic €1-award to anyone helping with the arrest of the Troika.
On Thursday, members of the Police Officers Federation protested outside the building of the EU and the Hilton Hotel, where the Troika representatives reside when in Athens.
Police officers say that in the last months 25,000 policemen and -women, received wages down to 500 euro, and some of them even zero euro due to reductions that were deducted retrospective.
The Federation calls its members to go on a ‘white strike’ and stop excecuting duties like transporting court documents, safeguarding sports facilities and other ‘obligations’ that have nothing to do with their real duties. (TA NEA)
*Derose has been replaced by Matthias Morse.-
The police themselves have had to take massive wage cuts and yet they have to defend the politicians that cut their salaries. Why don’t they just go on strike too?
to Sadforgreece: The moment that the police turn round to their government and say “no we won’t” throughout history ( France, Imperial Russia, Romania…) is the moment a revolution starts.
Living in the UK -a country where we always said the whole euro thing would end in tears- it puzzles me why it appears the greek people want to remain in the eurozone.
I genuinely don’t understand how it can be seen as a good thing how things can be any worse on the outside
“the greek people”??? You mean the government? The greek government does not represent the people. The greek media and government are trying 24/7 to make us believe that the euro is the best thing that has happened to us and we must defend the eurozone at all costs. But this does not represent popular opinion in greece.
Well if armed forces, be it police or the army, take over the government, this usually isn’t called a “revolution”. The proper word is “coup d’etat”. And in the vast majority of cases, the new leaders didn’t necessarily have the best interests of working class people in mind. Or do many Greeks have positive memories of the Junta?
If the police really issued that statement/warning to the troika then the troika will be laughing for a week. This says so much about the Greek mentality and their seeming lack of understanding that no-one in their right mind would be prepared to lend Greece a huge sum of money without assurances that it may be repaid, particularly after the first set of assurances have not been adhered to. If the government hadn’t created this mess then no-one would have to suffer so badly now. Their corruption and lack of concern for the Greek people has put us all in this terrible position. Threatening outsiders will only make the country look stupid. Why didn’t the police send this message to the government?
oh come on, Greek police proves it has humour…
Try making them smile when they are giving you a ticket….
They should be in jail and try their jokes on other inmates! I really would like to see if you would still find it funny if the police illegally threatened you with arrest in order to force you to act in their interests.
Interesting how propaganda works: Regarding the European media and 66% of their true believers all the last 2 years’ measures never happened!
13th and 14th salary they don’t translate as Christmas and holiday boni because they never call their 13th and 14th 14th and 13th!
2 years long no European (PAID!) journalist told the audience that there’s no welfare in Greece and that the unemployed only get money for maximum 12 months (in their whole lifetime)!
And so they also don’t tell the people that this money now is down to 390 instead of 461 Euros and that all wages will decline by 22% because they are related to the minimum wage.
45 billions “withdrawn” from Greek bank accounts had never been used to pay bills because accounts don’t fill up with not paid wages but, instead these ugly Greeks put their money under their beds – where the robbers only find old bread but this part of the story you won’t read in “Europe” (regarding “Europe” is a Greek word it’s time for a name change).
Not existing relatives of dead pensioners steal those dead pensioners’ money because nobody will ever ask the stupid question “where is the money?”
The newest one in these measures is to tell the world that the Greeks from abroad are ashamed of being Greeks although Greek communities collect some money and are the 1st place to ask for jobs at.
I’m feeling trapped right in the middle of a propaganda plot …
I will repeat what I wrote in another post: several Diaspora Greeks I talked to lately are saying they will not support their relatives in Greece anymore. Just one year ago they were telling me the opposite. That’s no propaganda, just what I picked up.
And do you realize how little information Greeks get about the average western European citizen? How their pensions are being cut at the moment? No, not by the amount here, but still. And do you realize that you can not pick up any magazine or newspaper abroad and you will get several articles about Greece. And no not only the ‘big story’ but constant stream of stories told by ordinary Greeks, telling how they are suffering.
I dare to say that the average west-European citizen knows 100 times more about what is happening here on ground level than even the best educated Greeks know if they are just relying on Greek media.
If you want to talk about a propaganda plot then you should also look at the total narcissistic view of large part of the local press and politicians here.
personally i think the police should try and clean their own house first. who can forget the “markiza” incident or december 2008, or even the june incindents where whole families were beaten and gassed as well as tourists. when it comes to defying laws and not protecting citizens they are near the top. maybe they dont like the competition from the troika 🙂
Hopefully, this was just a publicity stunt because as Robert says, if it was serious, then it would make them look foolish.
It is sort of like shooting the messenger for the message. It’s not the Troika’s fault, as I’ve said before and so did DSK, “We don’t come to a country uninvited….”
Have to agree with Robert on this one.
This shows nicely the extent of corruption in Greece! Police officials have no scruples at all to use illegal threats of arrest as a mean to advance their interests. This isn’t a harmless publicity stunt, this is misuse of authority in a way that’s unprecedent in the EU. Those police officers should be suspended and prosecuted immediately!