Austerity

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told Greeks on Tuesday that the country was "at war" with COVID-19, and warned that measures to fight the pandemic would hurt the fragile Greek economy.

Some 387 people in Greece have tested positive for coronavirus COVID-19 since February 26; five people have died and 70 are being treated in hospital, 11 of whom are in intensive care.

Greece's former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, who served during the leftist SYRIZA government's first term in 2015, has said that he will be publishing his recordings of negotiations with Greece's eurozone partners and creditors on March 16.

However justified some people's claims may be, no democracy can function properly without some limits. These limits were abolished in Greece some time ago and this is extremely dangerous, especially for democracy itself.

The current environment is the most favorable in several years for the Greek state for funding from the markets, analysts say, thanks to the strong rally of state bonds, the high investor demand, the return of major and quality portfolios to Greek issues and the upgraded mood about Greece. Therefore Athens has already started contacts for new bond issues.

The civil servants' union ADEDY has called a 24-hour strike for February 18 in protest at the conservative government's legislation on pensions which is to go before a vote in Parliament this month.
According to ADEDY, the bill perpetuates austerity measures introduced by governments during the crisis years, including auxiliary pension cuts of up to 50 percent.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has praised the Greek government's reform drive while defending Berlin's austerity prescription during the years of economic crisis.

Bucharest City Mayor Gabriela Firea claims the Orban government would have granted tax incentives "only to certain privately-owned companies, not to the whole business environment," as only chosen business people were elected for that.

The much addressed early election topic means austerity, on Sunday said in Targoviste (northwest of Bucharest) the Acting President of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), Speaker of the Chamber of deputies Marcel Ciolacu. "I'm deeply certain that the much addressed topic of the early election means austerity.

During the decade that just ended, Greece managed to deal with twin deficits that plunged the country into crisis and austerity. The country also managed to tame its public debt as, despite the fact that this grew both in size and as a percentage of gross domestic product, it is now considered to be sustainable thanks to the reduction of debt-servicing costs and the creation of a cash buffer.

A hearing that will determine whether the Greek state needs to return billions of euros in pension cuts imposed as part austerity measures during the 2012-2019 period starts at the Council of State (CoS) in Athens on Friday.