On Wednesday tens of thousands of protestors converged in the streets of Athens for a general strike against government austerity measures dictated by the powers that be in the European Union, who gave them a loan that insisted upon Greece cutting its debt. Greek police responded with pepper spray. Public servants such as teachers, hospital workers, school and university employees, ferry and rail workers, and public transport walked off the job along with journalists. There was a news blackout on television and radio.
Protests against measures trying to force Greece to raise taxes, abolish guarantees of lifetime employment, and make deep cuts in social programs are nothing new. Last May they flared up when assailants fire bombed a bank, killing people.
Germany is willing to extend the dates when the Greek bonds mature to cover the money that Greece is trying to raise to fund itself, but even Germany can’t fork over more foreign aid unless Greece shows progress in combating its own ills. German workers expect tax cuts and are now not getting them because they have to fund the Greeks.
Very grave for Germany’s purposes are recent poll numbers listed in the Thursday, May 12 article in the Wall Street journal, “Greeks Strike Over New Austerity Measures”. 60.3% of Greeks disapprove of the bailout deal Greece struck with the Northern Tier in Europe. And a telling 26% want to drop the euro as their currency.
Could this be one of the biggest economic challenges facing Germany since World War I and the hyper-inflation of the 1920’s that led to the rise of Adolf Hitler? Only time will tell.
