Victoria Mindova
Angry taxi drivers from all over the country, flags and slogans flooded Syntagma Square in front of the parliament on Tuesday. "We are united and will not step back," shouted taxi owners from all over Greece. They gathered in the capital for a national protest against the introduction of the new law that would eliminate existing restrictions regarding the number of licenses for the number of taxi drivers based on the population in a given populated area.
"My turnover per shift does not exceed 80 euros. 13% of it goes to VAT and the other about 50 euros goes to pay off the cost of buying the car and license for which I have taken a bank loan," says a taxi owner from Thessaloniki for GRReporter. "The bank does not ask me whether I have made money this month and it wants its money. If the city gets filled with taxis because Ragousis (Transport Minister) has decided to sell licenses per kilo, then what will happen?” he asks rhetorically.
Another colleague of his says that there are approximately 1900 taxis in Thessaloniki. "The taxi stops are full of taxis, and after the height of the crisis people use our services less frequently. At the same time the government raised fuel taxes three times, increased the VAT, and now it wants to take the bread from our hands."
The strike against the liberalization of the taxi profession continues for ten days in summer Greece and protesters will not step back unless the government relents. They want the government to ignore the already voted law for final market liberalization, which came into force in 2 July of this year, and give promise that they will leave a grace period. During this grace period the opening of the profession will be gradual and the number of licenses will be increased slowly.
Meanwhile, Transport Minister Yannis Ragousis said that the already adopted law should be enforced and the government will not step down to small political interests and thus harm the broader public interest. The problems created by the strike against liberalization led PASOK MP Leonidas Grigorakos to demand the resignation of the transport minister. He replied immediately that such a request is unfounded, especially by a member of the National Assembly, which four months ago voted "For" the law against which he protests today.
The Inspector General of State Administration Leandros Rakidzis ordered to make an accurate account of the cost of the state blockades that taxi owners carried out recently at ports, airports, museums and archaeological sites. Moreover, the state prosecutor's office said that any occupation of public infrastructure will be considered illegal and will launch proceedings.
In response, Chief Secretary of the union of taxi owners Costas Dimos said that the union urges members not to block ports and airports. However, he added that he cannot ban him and 5,000 of his friends and acquaintances to go to the beach of Piraeus, which is one of the largest ports in Greece and established commercial and tourist area.
Taxi owners from Chalkis, Thessaloniki, Crete, Lamia and many other places in the country came to Athens for the national protest. Protesters arrived in the capital in an organized manner with buses, motorcycles and private cars. All of them are convinced that they will not allow the government to implement the law on liberalization in their sector, as stated in the Memorandum of financial assistance to countries of the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. Based on initial information about the national rally in Athens, around eight thousand people had gathered, but some media reported, that the number of angry taxi owners in front of the parliament was over 10,000. Present at this protest were again slogans like "Take your Memorandum and walk away," but thankfully they were not accompanied by the taste of tear gas, as seen on other protests.
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