Jaded Greeks resigned to life of more austerity
athens — When asked what he thought about the prospect of yet more austerity to be imposed on Greece by its international creditors, Nicos Papapetrou was fairly short. “I had better stop because I will start swearing,” 49-year-old Papapetrou, a shop assistant in Athens, said.
Greeks appeared resigned on Tuesday to accepting further budget cuts and tax rises after their government agreed to a last-minute compromise of new reforms to keep bailout funds flowing.
Athens and its creditors — the eurozone and International Monetary Fund — agreed on Monday to resume talks on the long-stalled bailout review, but only after Greece agreed to examine what it described as “fiscally neutral” reforms from 2019 onwards.
That, local media have speculated, will mean a drop in the income tax threshold and further pension reform, in exchange for lower VAT rates on essential items and reduce annual tax rates on real estate.
“It’s a left wing government and they are bringing new cutbacks to pensioners and will tax the poorest. They should be ashamed of themselves,” Papapetrou said.
Lenders have sought further reforms to pensions and tax credits, arguing that a present system is based on a relatively small number of taxpayers supporting a large contingent of pensioners.
The Greek government has responded that it needs not only money but also some form of debt restructuring.
But ordinary Greeks, who have seen a quarter of their national output wiped out by austerity attached to bailout deals since 2010 with many living off pensions because of high unemployment, take a dim view.
Nearly seven years of austerity have led to a spike in poverty levels, and the highest poverty rate increase in the European Union. Eurostat data from 2015 showed 22.2 per cent of Greece’s 11 million population were “severely materially deprived”. Greek also has the highest unemployment rate in the EU — at 23 per cent. — Reuters