Nineteenth day of the homeless immigrants hunger strike, who want political asylum in Greece. After the fiasco with their removal from the Law Department building of the University of Athens, where the 253 immigrants had settled, came second drama.
The local government runs additional state guarantees worth €30 billion euros for local banks. The first support package of €28 billion was issued by the management of New Democracy after the outbreak of financial crisis in 2008.
As early as today the Prime Minister George Papandreou is expected to send a protest note to the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the European Central Bank as a protest against the "behavior" of their representatives during yesterday's press conference held in Athens.
The tax increases and the economic crisis locked down many of the kiosks in Greece. Their owners want to be provided by law with a profit of 8% as the minimum for their survival, otherwise they threaten with strikes.
Nothing can convince the Greek unions that the reforms in the public administration, public transport, health care or any other problematic sector of the economy have to be carried out. At this stage strikes seem to be endless.
The new EU requirements for stricter rules for capitalization and liquidity of the banks known as the Basel Committee 3 will lead to a slower credit growth, said the manager of the Bank of Greece Giorgos Provopoulos. He stressed that the new rules will encourage banks to rely more on the accumulation of deposits to make them financially more sustainable.