Today, December 18th is going to be a day of protests in Athens and whole Greece. The unions are on strike from 11:30 am till the end of the working day against the budget and the economical policy of the government. The medical employees in all public hospitals will strike during the whole 24 hours for higher salaries and more nominations. The high school and university students are gathering for an all Greek protest in the center of Athens in memory of the murdered boy Alexandros Grigoropoulos by a police bullet.

The unions will gather today in front of the parliament to protest against the 2009 budget, which according to them will lead to lowering the incomes and the expenses for education and health care, predicts new privatization deals, and unfair taxes. The trade-unions are blaming the government because of the decision to vote for the budget on Sunday, December 21st – a non-working day and demonstrations cannot be big in the center of Athens. The strike is supported also by the air-traffic controllers, who will not work from 12:00 pm until 03:00 pm, which means that the Athens airport “Elefterios Venizelos” will not get any incoming flights and will not let allow outgoing flights to leave for 3 hours.

Medical personnel 24 hour strike in whole Greece and 6 hour strike in Athens will shake hospitals today. Only emergency cases will be taken in. The medical employees are striking for bigger expenses for the health care system, more nominations, higher salaries, and announcement that their profession is dangerous and bad for the health. Also, they want a 5 day working week, only 1 night shift per week, and minimum 12 hours rest after a night shift.

For a 12th consecutive day are continuing the high school and university student riots in memory of the deceased by a police bullet 16 year old student. There will be two demonstrations in the center of Athens today and on Friday another one together with the unions. Today in Thessaloniki there will be a high school and university student concert. Tomorrow it become clear how the protests will continue during the holidays and the New Year, when three of the biggest student organizations will meet and make their plans. Anyway all levels of public education in Greece are paralyzed – the number of occupied high schools is 700 and the number of occupied universities is over 100.