Seafarers, bus and train drivers as well as government employees have almost brought public life in Greece to a standstill today with strikes. According to local media reports, there has been a standstill, especially in coastal shipping and public transport.
Switching to private vehicles resulted in traffic jams on numerous roads, which led to traffic chaos, particularly in the capital, Athens. In the Aegean and Ionian Sea, no ferry ran out, Greek media reported. At noon, journalists also stopped working for three hours.
Pensions should rise again
The unions in Greece are calling for an increase in pensions, which had been almost halved in the past ten years during the severe financial crisis. They also accuse the government of the bourgeois party Nea Dimokratia (ND) under Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of keeping pensions low and promoting the privatization of health insurance companies. A corresponding law has already been submitted to Parliament for approval.
The government accused the left-wing party SYRIZA under ex-prime minister Alexis Tsipras and the Communist Party (KKE) for promoting the strikes. One should never forget what led to the crisis in Greece, Mitsotakis said with regard to the debt policies of previous governments during a meeting of his cabinet.
