Angry Greeks Take to the Streets

About twenty thousand Greeks took to the streets Wednesday as much of the country went on a 24-hour strike against government austerity measures. For the most part the crowd remained peaceful, with the exception of a few students who threw Malotov cocktails at the police.

Public- and private-sector unions called the strike to protest a range of measures aimed at reducing Greece's budget deficit. The government has announced a freeze on civil-service wages, cuts in public-sector entitlements and the closing of tax loopholes for certain professions, including some civil servants. It has also announced a fuel-tax increase.

Spyros Papaspyros president of ADEDY, an umbrella union for public-sector workers said that the crisis should be paid by the rich. He went on to say Italy, France and Belgium had used the same techniques as Greece to mask their true deficits to qualify for the euro zone. "You simply put some amounts of money in the next year ... it is what everybody did and Greece did it to a lesser extent than Italy for example.”

Despite the protests and strikes, Greece appears determined to press ahead with its measures. An opinion poll published Sunday by Greek newspaper Ethnos showed that 76% of Greeks opposed strikes for the time being, and 58% thought the government's austerity measures were in the right direction.

The government needs to do something as they only have until 2012 to get there budget deficit of gross domestic product down to 3%, right now its 13%.