Greek Riots 2010 - Research

2010

Background:

• Giorgos Papandreou comes to office with his PASOK government.
• March 5^th 2010 they passed the cost cutting, Economy Protection Bill.
• On April 23^rd requested a bailout from the EU and International Monetary Fund.

Austerity measures

Included:

• Public sector pay cuts
• Pension reductions
• New taxes on company profits
• Increase tax on luxuries
• Increased VAT

The measure aimed to save around €30 billion through to 2012.

Through doing this, the EU and IMF would agree to give Greece an immediate €45 billion loan charging interest of roughly 5%. The total package would add up to roughly €110 billion. Papandreou submitted this bill to his parliament on May 4^th. The bill was put up for a vote which would take place on May 6^th.

This would become the biggest government overhaul in a generation. However the Greek people already feeling cheated by their governments for getting them into this mess in the first place did not agree that they should be the ones who were paying for this huge debt, especially seeing as they would be the ones feeling the cuts the most in the first place. New Democracy (who had recently lost office) vowed to vote against the bill, however being in the minority it was predicted it would probably pass anyway.