Across Europe, protesters call for solidarity with Greece

Brussels and Amsterdam have joined London, France, Germany and Italy in hosting mass rallies in support of cash-strapped Greece. Demonstrators said the financial sector must take responsibility for the damage it caused.

Deutsche Welle, 21 June 2015

Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in Brussels on Sunday at the same time as hundreds of similarly minded protestors crowded the streets of Amsterdam, rounding out a weekend of anti-austerity solidarity with Greece that also saw protests in France, Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom.

The protests come on the eve of an emergency summit where Athens is scheduled to meet with its creditors in a last-ditch attempt to resolve its debt crisis before it's forced to default on its loans.

"This crisis was caused by the financial sector, not by the Greek people," Manolis Glezos, a Greek parliamentarian and World War II resistance hero, told the crowd in Amsterdam.

"It's the financial sector that has to pay, not the Greek people."

Sebastien Franco, the organizer of the Brussels demonstration, which attracted over 3,500 participants, expressed a similar sentiment. "Austerity is not working, it reduces the income of poor people in the name of reimbursement to creditors…who continue to enrich themselves," he told Belgian television.

Athens saw its second anti-austerity rally in the past week on Sunday, calling on Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to reject pressure from creditors to accept continued austerity in exchange for bailout funds.

Carrying placards that read "the people will not be blackmailed" and "the country is not for sale," thousands of protesters filled the street in front of parliament.

es/cmk (AFP, Reuters)

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Greek ex-finance minister probed for hiding income

Yahoo – AFP, 7 March 2015

Greece's ex-finance minister Gikas Hardouvelis at the European Council in
Brussels, on January 26, 2015 (AFP Photo/Emmanuel Dunand)

Athens (AFP) - Ex-Greek finance minister Gikas Hardouvelis is being investigated for alleged failure to comply with his tax obligations, a Greek newspaper reported Saturday.

According to the weekly Real News, the deposits in Hardouvelis' bank accounts in 2011 did not match the incomes he had declared that year. Also, in 2012 he was suspected of sending money to banks abroad that was not accounted in his declaration of assets.

The inquiry was launched by anti-corruption minister and outgoing head of the independent money laundering authority, Panagiotis Nikoloudis,on January 20.

Nikoloudis confirmed to AFP on Saturday that he had opened a probe, emphasising that he had done so before becoming a minister in the new Syriza government.

"Hardouvelis has sent money abroad in a really curious way", he said.

Hardouvelis was briefly finance minister in the government of conservative prime minister Antonis Samaras, which was brought down this January by the populist Syriza party, campaigning to roll back painful austerity reforms imposed by Greece's EU creditors.

According to the Real News report, which was due to be published Sunday, Nikoloudis had sent an urgent classified demand to the Greek parliament, just five days before the general election, for an audit of Hardouvelis' tax declaration.

Hardouvelis issued a statement on Saturday, insisting that he had paid all taxes and that any foreign bank accounts he has were opened only because he had also worked abroad. Funds were only sent to those accounts when he was not a minister.

"I'm taxed for the sums of money the newspaper is referring to. The money is the result of many years of work -- mine and my wife's. My tax reports confirm that", said Hardouvelis.

Syriza issued a statement Saturday attacking Hardouvelis' alleged behaviour at the height of the Greek debt crisis.

"While Mr Hardouvelis was sending e-mails to the troika of creditors agreeing with new measures that would have burdened people even more, he was not revealing his income and he was sending his money abroad," Syriza said.

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Handout photo taken by the Hellenic Coast Guard on February 20, 2015 

shows a seized boat which was transporting large quantities of illicit cigarettes,

 in the western Greek port of Igoumenitsa (AFP Photo)

Athens (AFP) - It could be a scene from a thriller: a ghost ship abandoned in the crystal-clear bay of a Greek island, its hold crammed with millions of illegal cigarettes, the crew nowhere to be seen.

And no one knows where the freighter Amaranthus or its cargo were bound for when it beached on the island of Zanthe off the Ionian coast of western Greece in December.

But such discoveries are now almost routine for police as cigarette and petrol smuggling has become big business in crisis-hit Greece.

Every country in Europe has a problem with cigarette smuggling but in Greece -- which has the highest proportion of smokers of any developed country -- it has mushroomed since the economy sank into crisis.

A security official, who asked not to be named, told AFP corruption and a lack of resources had caused "major failings in the Greek Customs system" with few major seizures or investigations into smuggling rings.

Yet it is by cracking down on this multi-billion euro business, and the even more lucrative trade in petrol smuggling, that the new left-wing government hopes to find some of the money it needs to pay off Greece's gigantic debts.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has made stamping out fuel and cigarette fraud one of his priority reforms, with the state losing an estimated 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion) a year in petrol tax alone, and between 500 and 600 million euros in lost revenue on tobacco.

Cigarettes and taxes

According to the market research company Nielsen, which used official Greek data, more than one cigarette in five smoked in Greece last year was smuggled, compared with only three percent in 2009 when the crisis that has devastated the Greek economy first struck.

But with the price of cigarettes rocketing, and cash-strapped governments raising taxes on them five times in as many years, researcher Ioannis Michaletos of the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses said "the only efficient way of countering smuggling was to cut the tax on cigarettes".

This is not, however, what the government desperate to fill the state's empty coffers want to hear, and it seems determined instead to tighten controls and fully implement European rules on the traceability of cigarettes.

Michaletos is sceptical any such crackdown would work "given that European states better equipped than Greece have not had much success."

Even if the number of seizures is now increasing -- up by a half in the first part of 2014 -- it is another thing to track down those running this tentacular trade, he said, with counterfeit cigarettes coming not only from China but also from Greece's own substantial tobacco crop.

Handout photo taken by the Hellenic Coast Guard on February 5, 2015 shows

 seized cartons of illicit cigarettes at a Coast Guard warehouse in the port of 

Heraklion on the island of Crete (AFP Photo)

In addition, a separate huge VAT fraud involves cigarettes made in Europe for export being sold at home on the black market.

Petrol scams

But the loss to the Greek treasury is even more serious when it comes to petrol taxes. One fifth of the petrol used in Greek cars has been adulterated in one way or another, an industrial research centre found in 2012, mostly with petrol for boats which is taxed at a much lower rate.

Another major scam involves petrol distributors selling into neighbouring countries such as Bulgaria, Macedonia or Turkey but holding back some or all of their petrol to sell on the side at home, Giorgos Asmatoglou, president of the Greek petrol station owners' association, told AFP.

He claimed that successive governments had promised to put end to the practice, but that with hard-left Syriza party in power there seemed to be a "new will" to tackle it, particularly as a new deputy budget minister, economist Dimitris Mardas, had long studied the fraud.

Asmatoglou said using GPS to control the chain of distribution -- a measure that has been gathering dust for years -- could "change everything", ending much of the fraud at a stroke.

Podemos rallies Spaniards with anti-austerity message

Spain's upstart leftist party drew tens of thousands of supporters to central Madrid on Saturday. In just one year, it has gone from nothing to a serious contender in the upcoming vote. Guy Hedgecoe reports from Madrid.

Deutsche Welle, 31 Jan 2015

Angel Lopez strode through the back streets of Madrid with a group of friends, towards Puerta del Sol, the city's massive central square. Like tens of thousands of others this Saturday, they took part in the "March for Change," a demonstration organized by Podemos, the upstart political party which has taken Spanish politics by storm over the last year.

Saturday's event is the first time Podemos has gathered so many supporters, and Lopez believes it could be the beginning of the end for what he calls Spain's "pseudo-democracy."

"Podemos is our last hope," said the 61-year-old civil servant. "People of my age believe that the only way of ensuring that this corrupt system changes is through a new force that has the support of the grassroots."

Minutes later, Lopez arrived in Puerta del Sol for the culmination of the march, which saw a total of 100,000 people filling the square and surrounding streets, according to the police. Many demonstrators were brandishing the trademark purple flag of Podemos, or chanting its adopted slogan: "Si se puede" (or "Yes we can").

Iglesias: "Austerity policies have
divided our country in two"

Soaring support

Founded by a group of academics just a year ago, Podemos has transformed Spain's political landscape. Last May, it scooped 1.2 million votes in the EU elections, earning five seats in the European Parliament. Since then, support for its leftist, anti-austerity platform has soared. It currently leads many opinion polls, thus breaking the bi-party grip the Socialists and governing Popular Party (PP) have had on Spanish politics for over three decades.

Much of the party's success is attributed to its leader, Pablo Iglesias, a 36-year-old, ponytailed political scientist with a talent for public speaking. Dressed in jeans and a windbreaker, he addressed the crowd in Madrid to loud cheers.

"Today we're not here to protest, we're here to say that the time has come," he said.

"Austerity policies have divided our country in two: those who have won and those who are worse off than before - it's those on top and those down below."

Allied with Syriza

The party's fierce opposition to the austerity preached by Germany and the European authorities has aligned it with Syriza, the new governing party in Greece. Iglesias and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras have become close allies and in mid-January the Spaniard visited Athens to lend his support to the Syriza election campaign. Among the few concrete policies Podemos has announced is a proposed audit of the national debt, similar to Syriza's own plans.

"Who said that a government cannot change things?" Iglesias asked the Madrid crowd. "In Greece, they have done more in six days than other governments have done in years."

Syriza's election victory is seen as a boost to Podemos, and on Saturday Greek flags were visible among supporters of the Spanish party. One demonstrator bore a placard which read: "Greece 10, Angel Merkel 0."

Tens of thousands joined the rally in central Madrid

Spain's economy may be over five times larger than that of Greece, but the two countries have been suffering similar problems. The eurozone economic crisis has been deeply damaging for both nations, reversing growth, sending public debt soaring and leading to austerity policies which have eroded the welfare state. In Greece's case all of those challenges have been more pronounced than in Spain. However, the Spanish jobless rate, at just under 24 percent, is close to that of Greece's 26 percent.

"I don't know if Greece will get better or worse [under Syriza], but we do know that we don't want what we have right now," said Miguel Ruiz, at the demonstration with his family.

"We need a change in general - a change in our society, a cultural change," said his wife, Gemma.

Spain has now returned to growth after its half-decade economic slump and the International Monetary Fund has forecast that its gross domestic product will increase by 2 percent in 2015. But despite Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's insistence that the country is on the road to recovery, many Spaniards are unconvinced, especially with the jobless rate so high and austerity policies still in place.

Battling corruption

In addition, the perceived mismanagement of the economic crisis and a glut of scandals have combined to undermine the credibility of many state institutions, from traditional political parties and the government, to banks and the royal family.

For the last two years, the governing PP has been plagued by allegations that it ran an illegal cash fund financed by corporate bribes. Meanwhile, in late 2014, it emerged that 82 board members of the lenders Caja Madrid and Bankia had been given unregistered credit cards with which they had spent over 15 million euros ($16.9 million) on personal and luxury items. Other corruption scandals have hurt the Socialists in Andalusia and the Catalan nationalists of the Convergence and Union party.

"We're fed up at the lack of trustworthiness and the level of corruption among our politicians," said Javier Gonzalez, a 37-year-old engineer. "We're fed up with the establishment. It would be great if this [demonstration] worked to boost Podemos, but also as a wake-up call for the traditional parties."

With Podemos firmly focusing public debate on corruption, the party itself has been subjected to intense scrutiny. In recent days, critics have pointed to a 425,000-euro payment that Podemos co-founder Juan Carlos Monedero received from the governments of Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua in 2013 for advisory work. The tax authorities are investigating whether the payment was made legally.

A year of upheaval

Such political tensions reflect the fact that Spain is going into a year of potentially major upheaval. Municipal and regional elections are scheduled for May, with a general election almost certain to take place by the end of the year.

"It's going to be an enormous year," said Josep Lobera, a sociologist at Madrid's Autonoma University.

"At a regional level this year is going to see an earthquake, because Podemos could end up governing a number of regions, in coalition or on its own," he said. In the general election, he added, the party will also be a contender.

"That is new. It means a break with the bi-party system for the first time in nearly 40 years," Lobera added.

Related Article:

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Greek shipping tycoons threaten to set sail over tax privileges

Austerity-hit government has called an end to preferential tax treatment for industry built by tycoons including Aristotle Onassis

The Guardian, Helena Smith in Athens, Wednesday 26 February 2014

Greek shipowners have reacted with anger over a move to scrap preferential
tax rates for their industry. Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian

They are some of the richest people in Greece, the owners of the world's largest commercial fleet with bank accounts and property portfolios that, even by the standards of the super-rich, elicit awe. But in the high-risk business of trading the high seas, Greek ship-owners – in line with international maritime tradition – have also been granted special tax status on their vessels.

This week, the cash-strapped government in Athens insisted the preferential treatment – enshrined in the Greek constitution and respected by every government since the 1940s – was finally over. And shipowners are up in arms.

As it tries to steer Greece out of its worst recession on record, prime minister Antonis Samaras' fragile two-party coalition has suddenly found itself at war with the influential plutocrats who control one of the few thriving sectors of the Greek economy.

The imposition of extra taxes amounted to nothing less than a "constitutional deviation" warned Theodore Veniamis, the president of the Union of Greek Shipowners. "A negative climate has been created for any type of business investment in Greece," he said.

Samaras' conservative-dominated alliance rushed legislation through parliament, imposing a triple tax on ships managed out of Greece, as the 300-seat House held its last session before the Christmas break in December.

This week, the country's merchant marine minister said that the levy was an emergency measure that would last no longer than the next three years.

But while ordinary Greeks have been hit by a barrage of taxes since the debt-stricken nation was forced to accept international aid to avert bankruptcy, the country's famously secretive shipping community is digging in its heels.

The new tax law overturned a previous accord, signed after several months of talks last year, that had allowed ship-owners to make voluntary tax payments to help the nation's economic recovery. Most of the shipping companies run out of Athens' port of Piraeus – the industry's base in Greece – had agreed to back the voluntary scheme.

But with unemployment at a record 28%, the highest in the European Union, and worsening social and economic marginalisation, the legislation has won praise. In its fourth year of bailout funds from the EU and International Monetary Fund, Greece faces fiscal shortfalls this year and next. Samaras has refused to take further unpopular spending cuts to plug the gap.

In a rare display of concord with the government, the shadow minister for development in the radical left main opposition Syriza party told the Guardian: "It's a positive step."

Yet the strength of reaction from shippers appears to have taken the Samaras administration aback. The industry, which provides up to 200,000 jobs and sustains close to 500,000, has warned that the new tax regime could force it to move elsewhere – potentially wreaking havoc on the economy.

"The fear is that the lack of trust between the maritime community and our legislators may lead to an exodus from the Greek flag and perhaps Greece itself," warned Haralambos Fafalios, who chairs the London-based Greek Shipping Co-operation Committee.

As a pillar of the Greek economy, shipping rivals tourism in attracting foreign exchange: experts estimate it has brought over ¤140bn (£115bn) into the country in the past decade alone.

"The shipping industry is a significant contributor to Greece in terms of jobs, cash and economic activity, and it stands to lose all three if it changes the regime for attracting shipping companies to the country," said Vassilis Antoniades, managing director of the Boston Consulting Group, which recently conducted an in-depth study into the impact of shipping on the Greek economy. "To a great degree the Greek economy thrives on the shipping industry."

Since the 1960s, shipping tycoons, such as Aristotle Onassis (pictured), have established airlines, shipyards, refineries and hotels in Greece. Indicative of their pre-eminent role in a sector now worth about $660bn (£400bn), this year Greek shipowners placed a record number of orders to build new vessels in shipyards around the world, outstripping any of their global competitors.

With earnings from shipping accounting for around 7% of GDP, fears are growing that the government's step could ultimately be counter-productive – even if, in poverty-stricken Greece, many also accept that may also seem rampantly unfair.

"There are alternatives with other countries offering competitive tax regimes. People will simply register their ships elsewhere," said shipping expert David Glass, who said that the sector had been unfairly reviled. "Shipowners give a lot to this country. They've built half the hospitals on the islands. They're the ones building schools and handing out over 50,000 meals to the needy every month. People forget that."

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"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

".... The Illuminati

One more. "Kryon, what about the Illuminati?" OK, I'll tell you, for these things are already known by many.

Everything you thought about the Illuminati of the past is correct. This was not conspiracy, but fact. However, in the light of what I just said above, it could not sustain itself in an energy where everyone talks to everyone, and has since gone dormant.

The Illuminati was based in Greece, and it started by controlling the most potent economic attribute that could manipulate the strings of commerce on the earth - shipping. Once they had control of shipping, what followed was financial markets. This, then, worked its way to insurance, world stock markets and banking. This was prevalent for decades, right up to the mid '80s.

I have a question for the elders in the room. Look back in your lifetime, dear ones. What was the stock market like when you were younger? If you remember, you will say it had incremental changes up and down, except for occasional major shifts - which, by the way, were also controlled. It was steady, up or down. It didn't vacillate wildly, with hundreds of point-shifts from month to month. It never did. That's what a controlled market looks like. Now take a look at your current stock market. Does it look controlled? It is not! It is free-wheeling and it can go wherever it is driven by normal financial activity.

This should tell you something, dear ones. The Illuminati is no longer in control. It lost in banking, in tobacco, and it's about to lose in big pharma and insurance because awareness lets people know what is controlled and what is not. Awareness of truth will trump any other energy, and integrity will win some major battles.

So, did the Illuminate die? No. They simply lost their method of control.

The Future of the Illuminati

Now, I want to tell you something that you didn't expect and something I've reported only one other time. What about all of the money that the Illuminati has? There are trillions and trillions of euro in banks, under their control, waiting. What are they going to do with it and where are they going to use it? It's still here. They're waiting.

This group is waiting for something to happen that they know is going to happen, for they see it coming as much as I do. However, I would like to tell you something that they don't expect. With awareness comes generational shift. Those in charge of this money will not always be elders. The indigos eventually will have it.

They are waiting for something to happen in Africa - the building of a new civilization, a continent that has nothing to unlearn. Once Africa is cured, once it's ready, a new civilization can be created from the ground up. Africans will be ready to learn everything about building a foundation for the most advanced civilization ever and will do it with the most modern and inventive systems available. Eventually, this new continent will even beat the economics of China.

This is the prediction and always has been, and the Illuminati's money will fund it. Did I say the Illuminati will fund it? [Kryon laugh]The Illuminati's money will fund it, but there is a difference from the past, dear ones. The ones who inherit the positions in the Illuminati will be a different consciousness. Listen, they are not suddenly going to be the ones who have the good of everyone in their hearts - hardly. They want to make money, but what they will see instead is a way to make a great deal of money through this investment. In the process, it will automatically help hundreds of thousands, and they will be at the beginning, the foundation, that builds the new Africa. The new African states of unification eventually will create a continent stronger than any of the others, and it will have one currency. The resources alone will dwarf anything in the world.

"Wow, Kryon, how long is that going to take?"

The Humans in the room control that and those listening later and reading. When you leave this room, what are you going to do? Go home, report this, rub your hands together, and wait for it to happen? It won't. For the Humans in the room and the old souls hearing and reading have got work to do, and I've told you this before. You've got work to do.

There's an alliance that you're going to have to create with one another and with another group - the young people of Earth. The youth of this earth are changing the way things work. Can you see it? You're not supposed to sit around and watch them either, because they need you, old soul.

It's time for you to align with the indigos and the concepts of the youth of the planet. Do not think for a moment that their age shows their wisdom. These two attributes are not commensurate with one another; they're not linear. These young people may be older souls than you are! Don't think that because they've got technology that you don't understand that you can't be one with them. Their technology is social networking, the very thing we are talking about, where everyone can talk to everyone. The new consciousness on the planet starts in two areas - the children and the old souls. ..."