9th Greek general strike will last until “until the government of Papandreou has gone”

European Left
23 February 2011

The first general strike of this year is happening today with Greek protesters announcing to stay at Syntagma Square “until the government of Papandreou has gone”. However, the Prime Minister is seeing the strike with a certain distance, after meeting in Germany with Merkel’s and other EU leaders.

Transports and public services are apparently almost totally interrupted, whilst the a joint rally organized by the civil servants’ union ADEDY and GSEE, representing the general confederation of trade unions, with more than 250 000 people is taking place in the center of the city. A march has started at 11 a.m. from Pedion tou Areos Park until the Parliament.




The general strike against the imposed austerity measures comes a day after the parliament had pushed through legislation an extensive liberalisation of a number of professions, including lawyers, architects, engineers and notaries, part of legislation demanded by the EU-IMF-ECB troika in exchange for the rescue plan.

With the world’s attention turned to North Africa, the Eurozone keeps analyzing the current economic recovery and the evolution of stock markets, and the lead to threats of looming inflation. Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, visiting Angela Merkel in Berlin this week as part of a pre-summit tour of EU leaders, urged Merkel to consider more flexibility in dealing with the debt crisis and thanked Angela personally “thank you very much for what you have done, your support and your friendship”, he declared yesterday.



Seeming to be very calm, but watchful, before March’s summit, Merkel’s added, in a press conference, that “Ireland's bail-out terms covered a seven-year period, while Greece's was just three. It's one point that's on the table". While admitting that “Greece has started to put its house in order”, she warned that “We have been watching this with satisfaction because we know that this requires political audacity. I believe that there are still some more things for Greece to do and the more decisive that it is in following the necessary policies, the more Germany will believe that it can succeed.", she said.