Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou won a parliamentary vote on a new round of austerity designed to secure more financial aid, risking further unrest that left one person dead after protests turned violent.
Athens was left to clean up today after protestors clashed with police during a 48-hour strike in the run-up to the vote late yesterday. Papandreou secured the backing of a majority of lawmakers in the 300-seat chamber for the bill as European leaders announced a second summit for Oct. 26 to give them more time to work on a “global and ambitious” strategy to combat the sovereign debt crisis that is roiling global markets.
“From Greece’s perspective they’ve done everything they need to do,” Marchel Alexandrovich, an economist at Jefferies International in London, said in a Bloomberg Television interview with Francine Lacqua. Greece “will probably get its money in the near term, but longer term obviously lots of question marks remain.”
Strikes flared up again today as workers continued to protest government plans for further job layoffs and wage cuts. Municipal workers called another 24-hour walkout and planned to hold a rally in central Athens, defying government attempts to order garbage collectors back to work.
Tax collectors, Finance Ministry employees and some doctors remain on strike, while Greek seamen called a third 48-hour strike in a move that may cause disruptions to food and medical supplies to Greece’s islands, the Athens News Agency reported.
