"With tensions running high over the new measures – part of a mammoth €11.9bn austerity package that is set to save the state more than 5% of GDP over the course of the next two years – unions are warning that the conservative-led government should take stock or worse could come.
In a departure from other mass protests, members of the police force, army, navy and judicial system joined public and private sector employees on the streets. One police officer, who preferred not to give his name, said the Greek state "should feel deep shame" at imposing cuts on the very people whose protection it sought.
"This is a warning to the government not to pass the measures," said Ilias Iliopoulos at ADEDY, the union of civil servants, insisting that around 350,000 Greeks took part in protest marches nationwide (police put the number in Athens at around 70,000). "Today was a huge success as witnessed by all those in the armed forces and police who also participated because they, too, will be affected by these cuts. The government must know that if it wants to push us further into a corner, we will react.""
The Greek Revolution is in full swing. Greece must go the way of Iceland and suffer for a while longer, or burn to the ground now. - Wes
