Greece has new austerity measures

• Protesters take to the streets

On Wednesday, the government of Athens announced additional austerity measures for 2011 and 2012, under the pressure of international creditors, in order to receive the next tranche of the loan.

The Greek government will lower pensions that exceed 1,200 Euros, will introduce technical unemployment for 30,000 employees in the public sector (as opposed to 20,000 like it had been initially established) and will lower the minimum taxation threshold from 8,000 Euros a year to 5,000 Euros a year. The authorities will also speed up the privatization program.

The spokesperson of the government, Elias Mossialos, said that the measures passed by the government will allow Greece to meet the terms of the financial aid until 2014.

"The discussions with the EC- ECB-IMF troika will be completed once the inspectors arrive, in the beginning of next week", reminded Mossialos, who added that Greece intends to remain in the Eurozone.

The new austerity measures yesterday caused a 24 hour strike, which froze public transportation in Greece.

Tens of thousands of angry unionists took to the street, in the first national movement of the kind since June.

"This is a policy that we will not tolerate, that we do not want. We are in full and permanent opposition to the policy of the authorities", the leader of the GSEE union of the private sector, Yannis Panagopoulos said on the public TV station NET TV.

An employee of the National Theater said, the following in turn: "We are living in terror . We are worried that we could lose our jobs, our lives. Even if the layoffs are needed, we are not being treated humanely. We are having our wages and salaries (...) We are going to be sacrificed for nothing. We can"t avoid going into default, we have no hope".

Greek officials recently admitted that they only have money left until October. The next tranche of the foreign loan that the Greek state needs amounts to 8 billion Euros.