ERA Radio News Bulletin (Oct.3)

News in English 3-10-13

“Golden Dawn” news

The General Secretary of Golden Dawn, Nikos Michaloliakos, and the head of the local branch of the organisation of Nikaia Giorgos Patelis, will be transferred to Korydallos prison along with the MP of the party, Giannis Lagos, and the female deputy sergeant who was involved in the case. Their transfer is expected today afternoon.

According to his indictment, Nikos Michaloliakos appears to have absolute leadership, on both the political and the operational sections of Golden Dawn. It is stated, inter alia, that the leader coordinated and knew about the unlawful activities of the organisation, since every one of the attacks, assaults and attempts to cause serious injury, were carefully planned.»

Golden Dawn, characterized the custody of the party’s Secretary General as “unfair and unconstitutional”, claiming that it has been «dictated by foreign centres of power».

Golden Dawn MP, Christos Pappas, appeared before the investigating magistrate shortly before 1pm. He is the last of the party’s arrested MPs to submit his testimony. The MP, who is charged for integrating and directing a criminal organization, shouted to the reporters that «Golden Dawn will come down to elections again, whenever they will be held»

The judge’s decision to release three out of four Golden Dawn MPs, was met with surprise by the government. According to information, the Minister of Public Order, Nikos Dendias, handed his resignation to the Prime Minister, but it was not accepted.

Rapid and massive developments concerning the leadership of Greek Police are estimated to occur. Already, the Inspector General of Police of Southern Greece and the General Police Director of the District of Central Greece have submitted their resignations to the Secretary General of the Ministry of Public Order.

A woman with a warrant pending for her arrest turned herself in to the Counterterrorism Department this morning. According to information, she is the wife of one of the fugitives allegedly involved in the murder of musician, Pavlos Fyssas.
Mrs Themis Skordeli, who was wanted by the police, for cooperation in criminal activities in the case of Agios Panteleimonas has been arrested.
The 50 year old Themis Skordeli is known as «an indignant resident of Agios Panteleimonas» and is accused of racist attacks against Afghan immigrants. Her trial has been postponed a total of eight times!!!!
Meanwhile, the parliament will begin discussing four anti-racist bills today.

Other news

An appeal to the Council of State has been filed by the rectors of eight universities that are affected by the measure of availability. The rectors claim that by the Joint Ministerial Decision, the self-managing principle of universities has been violated and that the State deprives the institutions from funding necessary for their operation. At the same time, the appeals for temporary suspension of the availability of the administrative employees of Athens University have started to be submitted.

Twenty-two educators from vocational institutions, who were under availability, are returning to their positions temporarily, following the decision of the Administrative Court of Appeals in Athens.

Students are on a protest march in the centre of the Athens protesting against the «New high school law». The march joined university student unions and administrative employees unions. The University Students Front of Struggle, has called upon massive participation to the mobilization scheduled outside the Ministry of Education at 12 noon, «against the underfunding of high education institutions, the degradation and privatization of basic functions, the layoff of employees and the dissolution of student welfare»

A protest gathering against the privatization of the Water distribution company of Thessaloniki, EYATH, has been organized by “PAME” Workers Front of Greece outside the company’s premises in Syntrivani Square in Thessaloniki. The event is a part of the Internatinal Day of Action of the World Federation of Trade Unions, and the key speaker was the representative of PAME and general secretary of the Federation, Mr. Giorgos Mavriko.

A protest gathering is taking place now in Kannigos Square, organized by the Associasions of employees, at the General Secretariat of Commerce and Consumers, at the General Secretariat of Industry and Energy and at the ministry of Education, against the availability measure and the redundancies at the public sector.

Under occupation is the Directorate of the Regional Unit of Evoia, located in Chalkida. The employees, led by the Labour Centre of Evoia, are protesting for the raise of unemployment at their region which reaches 25% and for the layoffs that multiply fast without even compensations and accruals being given.

Greece’s unemployment rate will rise to 34 percent by 2016 according to a survey by GSEE’s Institute of Labour, published today. It is indicated that from October 2008 until today approximately 1.000.000 jobs have been lost. It is pointed out, that the percentage of 27.4 that has been recorded as unemployment rate last March by the Greek Statistical Authority was the highest percentage to be recorded by a western country in the past 30 years.

The Institute of Labour of The General Federation of Greek Workers, warns that «the continuation of the policy applied by the Greek Government and the troika of foreign lenders, will continue to have “devastating consequences” for the Gross Domestic Product and will further affect employment in the coming years.

The criteria to qualify for unemployment benefits, is changing from 1 January 2014.The total unemployment allowance days within a 4 year period, will be reduced from 450 to 400 days. According to sources in the Ministry of Labour, this is the implementation of Article 11 of the Law 3986 of 2011 that restricts the cumulative amount of unemployment allowances within four years.

The first notice letter, to settle their debts is being sent to debtors of the Social Security Fund (IKA). All employers that will not come to settle their debts will face coercive measures for debts’ collection (for example, foreclosure auctions etc.) 6000-7000 notices will be posted to active businesses. An overall of about 300.000 businesses are indebted to the Social insurance and welfare funds, IKA, but so far the participation to the new settlement does not leave much room for optimism. Based on a circular of IKA, since Tuesday, all pending debts of the fund have been transferred to the newly founded centre of Collection of Arrears, (KEAO).

Greece’s biggest lenders, National Bank of Greece and Piraeus plan to put their troubled loans into separate «bad banks» in order to restore consumers’ confidence in the rest of their business, the banks’ executives told Reuters. National Bank of Greece (NBG) deputy chief executive, Petros Christodoulou, said he was also talking to private investors about a joint venture that would involve them taking on a minority stake in some small and mid-sized business loans.

The President of European Socialists in the European Parliament, Hannes Swoboda, characterizes the economic and social situation in Greece as «unacceptable and unviable”, highlighting the very high youth unemployment rate, now over 60%. In the same statement, after the meeting he had with the president of SYRIZA in Brussels, he expressed his deep concern about the «rising neo-Nazi extremism and violence in Greece, which led to the murder of Pavlos Fyssas by members of Golden Dawn». Mr. Swoboda welcomed the «appropriate and strong response» of the Greek Government on the issue of Golden Dawn» noting that «we must ensure that the same level of control will be maintained in the future. I wholeheartedly agree with Mr. Tsipras that neo-Nazi extremists and violence in Greece and Europe can only be combated by the unity of all democratic forces», said Mr Swoboda.

Alexis Tsipras requested a European Conference and «debt haircut» in Brussels. The President of SYRIZA, Alexis Tsipras, during his two-day trip in Brussels, had the opportunity to present the positions of his party on the ways of solving the problem of the country’s debt, within the European framework. Mr. Tsipras reiterated to his interlocutors the firm position of his party for convening a European Conference on the public debt, i.e. of an urgent Summit, where the 28 will decide on the reduction of Greek debt to the bailout mechanisms, on a moratorium of rates’ payment and on the interconnection of the fiscal efforts with development.

ERT news

ERT3 participates with four productions in the 6th Annual Greek Film-Festival which will be held in London from 7th to 17th of October.
The organizing committee have chosen ERT3’s documentaries to participate in the competition part of the festival.

The solidarity events in support of ERT’s employees continue in ERT’s premises. Today, Elina Skaprathioti, will be with us in a concert with songs of nueva canción, titled «Be a song cry «. Roman and Demian Gomez from Buenos Aires will accompany her on guitar and percussion.