Opening a parliament debate in Athens on the government’s planned tax increases and cuts to pensions and wages, Papandreou said that a 48-hour walkout by workers in schools, hospitals and on public transport due to begin today “will not help Greece”, contrasting the strikers with his government’s efforts to help the country back to economic growth. “Greece is being held hostage by strikes and protests”, Papandreou told lawmakers late yesterday. “This government has been fighting for two years to save the country and still has much work ahead”, he said. “We will give battle and we will win.”
Papandreou is risking social unrest as he banks on Greek lawmakers to push through additional austerity in an October 20 vote to continue receiving international support under a €110 billion($151 billion) bailout negotiated last year. With Greece’s debt-reduction targets slipping as the cuts bite, EU leaders are preparing to meet on October 23 to reopen the terms of a second bailout three months after it was sealed as part of a package meant to end the debt crisis. Papandreou urged EU leaders to end the “great uncertainty” over efforts to stamp out the crisis two years in. “Europe hasn’t been able to halt the crisis”, he told his ruling Pasok party lawmakers. “We have to achieve the relieving of the debt burden which is weighing on each Greek.”
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