Greece: On the edge

A ghastly new dawn A WHIFF of tear gas, the first in the city centre for almost a year, signalled the start of a new round of protests led by Greek teachers, school and university administrators, and members of the capital’s recently disbanded municipal police. All face being laid off in a long-awaited cull of public-sector workers. Riot police resorted to firing the tear gas on September 16th to dissuade a group of school guards from occupying the ministry of public administration.Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the minister in charge, has been scrambling to find another 1,500 candidates to complete a quota of 12,500 workers, who will be transferred to a “mobility reserve” at the end of September. University rectors objected to his last-minute proposal to include secretaries, laboratory technicians and computer support staff. Mr Mitsotakis had to cast around half a dozen ministries to try to make up the numbers days before the “troika” of officials from the European Commission, European Central Bank and IMF arrive to check up on Greece’s progress.Another 12,500 jobs must be cut by the end of 2013. Workers dumped in the reserve on 75% of their...

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