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Greece takes its medicine

February 22, 2012

The Greek parliament has debated a debt writedown while thousands of Greek union supporters protest in opposition to the latest round of austerity measures, which are necessary to receive more emergency loan funding.

https://p.dw.com/p/147u3
A hand cleans the logo of the Bank of Greece
Image: AP

Greek lawmakers on Wednesday hurriedly debated the most recent legislation aimed at securing more bailout funding from European and global partners, as thousands of leftists and union supporters protested new austerity measures.

Parliament is expected to approve a 107-billion-euro ($141 billion) writedown on Greek government bonds on Thursday. The writedown for banks and other private lenders to Greece was a key condition for the approval of 130 billion euros in additional emergency loans from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.

Also expected to be approved next week are 3.2 billion euros in further budget cuts and budgetary revisions, including 1 billion euros in cuts to pensions, 700 million euros in cuts to the health and education budgets and a 22-percent cut in the minimum wage.

Schnelle Ernüchterung in Griechenland # 22.02.2012 22 Uhr # Journal Englisch

Eurozone finance ministers on Tuesday approved the full bailout package, which Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said "binds Greece to the euro" and would protect the country from default.

The high price of the bailout led some 4,000 demonstrators to gather in Athens to protest the austerity measures. The two main unions, GSEE and Adedy, led the calls for protest.

Meanwhile credit rating agency Fitch downgraded Greece's sovereign debt rating to C, down two notches from CCC and just one notch above formal default.

acb/mz (AFP, AP, dpa)