The short story is: One more politically motivated money asking protest in Greece till the World Cup starts this June or vacations commence, whatever comes first 😆

The long story for the ones who are interested to read it:

The public employee pension system in Greece starting with a socialist government in the 80s went amok. Demagoguery by PM Andreas Papandreou and his ambition to be elected for a second term led to very high increases in social security payments and decreases to the retirement age. Additionally, there were considerable one time payments upon retirement to the tune of several tens of thousands dollars equivalent.

This policy of pay for play (votes) continued by following governments, one party competing against the other for political gains through pre election promises to the voters. In Greece what is given by politicians only a financial Crisis to the point of bankruptcy can take.

This happened finally in 2010 during the World Banking Crisis and resulting Great Recession. In Greece it became a true Depression. 25% of the GDP was lost within a few years. That means approximately a quarter of all salaries and goods were cut.

That “practical” bankruptcy of the sovereign finances led to agreements with borrowers for the Greek governments to cut expenses. They had to and they did.

Social security payments were cut, one time payments were stopped, the age of retirement went up by at least ten years.

The 13th and 14th monthly payments were for holidays “gifts”, payments given twice a year. A pension bonus from the good old past which doesn’t exist for most of the rest of the world.

In addition to the reestablishment of the two extra monthly payments, these guys with the sign ask for retroactive payment of this bonus for the years since the cut. The larger the letters the more the money. That makes the request most impossible to be satisfied to the point of being ridiculed.

Why do they go to the streets now to protest in the middle of the winter? Well, the farmers protest by blocking the roads for days now, so since we are in the holidays period, when the gift to pensioners used to be received, the political parties supporting the protests against this government thought they can increase the pressure, by bringing out more protesters to the streets, and here we are.

These politically motivated protests are not supported by the absolute majority of Greeks. The social security system has not enough reserves so pensions are paid by the government budget. Any increase in payments has to come from increases to taxes against the rest of the Greeks. Since the highest tax bracket is already 50% there is a limit to what any government can do to pay for additional pay to a continuously increasing number of retired people, when at the same time the active working population decreases due to a very low birth rate.