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Victoria Mindova

The leader of the extreme right party George Karadzaferis expressed his support for the reforms of the socialist government of PASOK. According Karadzaferis the economic policies of Prime Minister Giorgios Papandreou are "responsible" and "serious", and all planned measures in the Stability and Development program, are in the “right direction." This became clear after a meeting between the leader of LAOS with Andreas Loverdos - Minister of Employment and Social Security. 

 "In its core the government's program coincides with the vision and plan for the outcome of the economic crisis of LOAS. We support any responsible decision that this government will take in order to lead the country out of a long term dead end street," said George Karadzaferis one day after the national strike of public and private employees in Greece. 

At the same time a group of protestors had gathered in front of the Ministry of Finance and chanted slogans "Give money to the people", "No! to the emergency measures and cuts in wages”, "We want work, not taxes”. 

The protest was an initiative of the extreme right political group SIRIZA regarding the financial policy of the socialist government. "The tax reform of PASOK is purely looting when the biggest problem is unemployment in the country. We non-working force, not working one," said the chairman of the parliamentary group SIRIZA Alekos Alavanos. According to him, the government needs to start up the production mechanisms and thus create new jobs. Alavanos accused the government of incompetence. "All actions of the ones currently in power are in the wrong direction," he said. 

The representative of the extreme Left is explicit that if additional measures are introduced, then the entire Greek nation must rise to a rebellion. "Expect people’s anger to flow with much larger protests and civil disobedience than the ones on February 24,” threatened the radical communists. 

After years of irresponsible government, on the brink of financial collapse, Greece fell also under the hit of the international markets. The reforms in the tax and social insurance systems do not meet the necessary public understanding and thus the government's performance becomes even more difficult. On March 15 and 16 Greece needs to present in Brussels its report, which describes the degree of implementation of measures for the reduction of government deficit, recorded in the stability and development program. It seems that the country will not get away only with increasing the VAT and a further drastic cost cutting in the public sector. Unfortunately the intransigence of the Greek citizens that the "good old days" are gone forever, is making the recovery of the local economy even more difficult.