Greek ferry workers and journalists have begun a strike to protest at a new austerity package to be put to a parliamentary vote this week. Islands without an airport will be effectively cut off from the mainland.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/Y. Karahalis
Advertisement
Greece is facing a day-long information blackout, while many tourist islands will be virtually unreachable, as journalists and ferry workers began strikes on Tuesday to protest at another package of austerity measures ahead of a parliament vote on Thursday.
Journalists are on a 24-hour strike. Radio and TV news broadcasts have been cancelled and newspapers are not expected to be published for two days, while no ferries were to sail in the Ionian and Aegean seas, according to coastguard information.
The 48-hour ferry workers' strike will affect many Greek islands - some of the country's main tourist destinations - with those lacking an airport being virtually inaccessible for the duration of the stoppage.
Air traffic controllers have said they will join the strike on Wednesday, stopping work for four hours. Demonstrations are also planned in the capital, Athens, for the morning.
Struggling economy
Other unions, including those for workers in public transport, hospitals, schools and state administration, have also threatened to stop work ahead of the vote in parliament, where lawmakers will decide whether to approve planned measures such as pension cuts and tax hikes. Together, the measures are expected to bring in 4.9 billion euros ($5.3 billion) annually.
The austerity package is a condition for receiving further tranches of money from a bailout deal agreed with the country's international creditors. Greece has been fighting to stave off bankruptcy for seven years, and is due to repay more than 7 billion euros in July to the European Central bank and the International Monetary Fund.
The country is now on its third international bailout. In return for the series of rescue loans, the government has had to implement repeated austerity packages. Although the country's finances have improved, poverty and unemployment are still rife, with the jobless rate now at around 23 percent after falling from 27 percent.
The Greek economy has, however, recently received a boost from greater tourist numbers, with many avoiding Turkey and Egypt owing to security fears. The country experienced a record season for tourists in 2016, and the upcoming summer is expected to see even higher figures.
Seven years of bailouts, but Greeks sink deeper into poverty
As Greece's poverty rate doubles despite billions in aid, most Greeks struggle to cover costs and many depend on soup kitchens and handouts.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/Y. Karahalis
Economic hardship
A growing number of Greeks is barely making ends meet. After seven years of bailouts that poured billions of euros into their country, poverty is still an issue, worssening like nowhere else in the EU.
Image: Reuters/A.Konstantinidis
Three bailouts for Greece
Above, people line up to apply for social benefits in Athens. The global financial crisis and its fallout forced four euro zone countries to turn to international lenders. Ireland, Portugal and Cyprus all went through rescue programs - and their economies are growing again. But Greece, the first to receive a bailout in 2010, has already needed three support lines.
Image: Reuters/A.Konstantinidis
Going through hard times
Eva Agkisalaki, 61, a former teacher who volunteers in a soup kitchen run by the Orthodox church, did not qualify for a pension because her contract ended when the retirement age was lifted to 67 under the bailout program. Part of her husband's pension - cut to €600 ($634) from €980 as part of the reform package demanded by the international lenders - goes to her son and daughter's families.
Image: Reuters/A.Konstantinidis
Most Greeks "just exist"
Eva receives handouts from the soup kitchen which she shares with her unemployed daughter and her son. "We're vegetating," she says between setting a long wooden
table for the next meal of bean soup, bread, an egg, a slice of pizza and an apple. "We just exist. Most Greeks just exist."
Image: Reuters/A.Konstantinidis
No debt forgiveness
An elderly man sells chestnuts in front of the parliament building in Athens during a demonstration demanding tax cuts. International creditors are urging tax hikes and pension cuts, but the government says the country has seen enough austerity.
Image: Reuters/A.Konstantinidis
Below the poverty line
An elderly woman eyes donated clothes at a soup kitchen. Greece isn't the poorest member of the EU - poverty rates are higher in Bulgaria and Romania. But it ranks third, with Eurostat data showing 22.2 percent of the population were "severely materially deprived" in 2015.
Image: Reuters/A.Konstantinidis
Little hope for better days
A man patiently waits to have his clothes washed by the Ithaca mobile laundry service. Volunteers drive a van across town with two washing machines and two dryers, offering their services ti the homeless. "You see the same faces, but also new ones," says Fanis Tsonas, co-founder of the mobile laundry as destitute
men and women approach the van toting bags of laundry.
