Link: Greek Anger Spills Into Mass May Day Protest

Sunday, 2 May 2010, 1:58 pm
Article: Scoop Link

Scoop Link: Greek Anger Spills Into Mass May Day Protests

Full story at: FOCUS: Greek Anger Spills Into Mass May Day Protests - WSJ.com

By Nick Skrekas, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRE
Asia Edition - Wall Street Journal - WSJ.com

ATHENS (Dow Jones)--Greeks turned out on mass for May Day protests which were largely peaceful with the exception of few clashes between anarchists and riot police.

But unions warn this is just the beginning and polls reveal that the bulk of society is angry and ready to stay on the streets.

This May Day protest has been much larger than usual because of the backdrop of looming and very unpopular austerity measures expected to be announced Sunday. This will be a second and even harsher round of wage and pension cuts imposed by the ruling socialist party now in power for seven months.

"We will be pursuing an organized, massive and long-term struggle against austerity measures because they can only lead to a very severe depression and skyrocketing unemployment," Ioannis Panagopoulos, the president of the private sector umbrella union GSEE, told Dow Jones Newswires.

Debt stricken Greece doesn't have many choices and is likely to adopt the measures since they are a strict precondition for it to be able to access a multi year EUR100 billion-EUR120 billion bailout from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. The deal is expected to be finalized Sunday.

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