Upset that 350 shipyard workers protesting against not being paid for six months broke their way into the courtyard of the defense ministry and with rising social unrest against more planned austerity measures, Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said he will crack down on protests.
Fearing the protests and strikes could destabilize his already uneasy coalition – and with labor unions calling for a work stoppage and demonstrations when German Chancellor Angela Merkel comes to Athens on Oct. 9 – Samaras said: “I won’t allow Greece to become a free-for all.” He did not say whether he would mobilize more police or how he would try to control protests.
Samaras told reporters he was angry at “those who don’t understand the meaning of law and order,” an apparent reference to the shipyard workers whose protest turned into a skirmish with police that got worldwide attention as he was trying to finalize a 2013-14 budget that includes another $17.45 billion in cuts and tax hikes.
“The government is waging a battle on all fronts for the country’s credibility and its future so that sacrifices of Greeks aren’t wasted,” Samaras said. Sources told Kathimerini that the Premier fears the protests could escalate. Demonstrations, strikes and riots against austerity measures demanded by international lenders brought down the previous government of former PASOK Socialist leader George Papandreou nearly a year ago.
Samaras, the New Democracy Conservative leader, is trying to keep together his coalition with PASOK’s new leader Evangelos Venizelos and the tiny Democratic Left as the Troika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB) has disputed projected savings of $3.25-$4.26 billion in the budget plan.
Until the Troika signs off and the Parliament rubber stamps the deal, the Troika is withholding a $38.8 billion loan installment, the last in a first series of $152 billion in rescue loans and is keeping a second bailout of $172 billion in limbo.
With so much at stake, Samaras is trying to quell public unrest before it can’t be contained and threatens his government as well. He warned that unless Greece does the Troika’s bidding that it will not get the lifeline loans needed to keep paying workers and pensioners and will collapse into chaos.
Rowdy behavior is growing even in the Parliament where Ilias Kasidiaris, spokesman for the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party, rained criticism on the head of the chiefs of staff, Gen. Michalis Kostarakos, for not wearing his hat when he confronted protesters outside the defense ministry, to no avail.
Kasidiaris ranted against the government, said that Venizelos should be made to “shut up” and belittled Papandreou as “little George, the 25 percent Greek,” referring to the former Premier having an American mother and a foreign upbringing. That provoked an outpouring of curses from other Members of Parliament who walked out in outrage and raised the spectacle of whether Samaras can keep control.
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