The purpose of the government is to relieve the external debt by 20 billion euro by buying government bonds of a nominal value of 30 billion euro with a 10 billion euro loan from the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF).

Unemployment reached 26% in September and one in two young people remain outside the labour market.

After the blockade of the department of officials in the municipality of the capital city that lasted for weeks, 1,800 mayoral workers in Athens were left without pay in November. The strike actions have returned like a boomerang and hit everyone.

On the fourth anniversary of the murder of Alexandros Grigoropoulos, aged 15, the protesting youths failed to even get close to Syntagma Square, which had become an impregnable fortress of hundreds of policemen.

At an average buyback price of 35 cents per euro debt, banks are expected to lose approximately 20 billion euro. They will have to receive almost the same amount from the European aid programme by the middle of December.