Frankfurter Rundschau: Greeks barely make ends meet

"Otherwise the general strike will not be particularly felt in Athens. Because the Greeks are tired of striking. And rightly so. Since March 3, 2010 to date, dozens of general strikes have taken place in Greece. That day, then Prime Minister George Papandreou had announced the first package of cuts for the essentially bankrupt European country.

Since that time, the Greeks have expressed their collective desperation for the unceasing tough policy of cuts through hundreds of strikes by individual professional groups and other countless mobilizations.

The Papandreou government was already overthrown in 2011 and quickly became nonexistent politically. However, whoever has ruled since then, whether independent or conservative, socialist, or leftist, has always imposed on the people new rounds of cuts, cconstantly. The inevitable consequence: the wrath of the citizens was followed by lethargy, and this despite many reasons why the Greeks should continue to rebel.

Because Greeks are getting poorer. And this is clear in the fact that while at the beginning of the crisis in 2010 citizens could put aside at least 2.3% of their income, from 2012 they are living off of their savings and yet they barely manage to cover their basic expenses."