Greek Policemen, Firefighters and Coast Guard Protest Austerity Measures

About 3,000 Greek policemen, firefighters and coast guard personnel demonstrated in Athens on Thursday. They’re angry about losses to jobs and benefits due to cuts in the public sector.

Dressed in their uniforms, the protesters marched to the Ministry of Finance demanding the government backtracks on cutback plans affecting essential emergency services.

Funded by the state, they, like many other Greeks, have also become victims of the government’s austerity drive and have suffered from job losses, wage, benefit and social insurance reductions.

[Dimitris Georgatzis, President, Police Officers Union]:

„We are also part of society, and we are part of the society that is burdened even more than the others. Amongst the ‚indignants‘ in Syntagma square we also have our people and their families and friends. With all of these problems we therefore feel like the ‚indignants‘.“

Greek police guard the nightly protests outside parliament by Greece’s „indignant“ movement on Athens central Syndagma Square.

Thousands of protesters began camping and demonstrating there every day against austerity measures since May 25.

[Nikolaos Athanatos, Vice President, Firemen’s Union]:

„Yes it’s true, we are all ‚indignants‘ and we unite our voices with them so that we can be heard by those ears that are still plugged.“

The government, under pressure from its lenders, says cutbacks are needed to save the country from defaulting on its borrowings and secure the next aid loan from the EU and IMF.

On Tuesday the government survived a confidence vote after a European ultimatum linking release of the next installment of a 110-billion-euro EU/IMF aid package to a new five-year belt-tightening plan.

Foto: NTD