Greece probes alleged posting by Special Forces reservists calling for government resignation

ATHENS, Greece — An Athens prosecutor ordered an investigation Thursday into a blog post on a military reservists’ website demanding the resignation of the government and president and the appointment of an interim government under the guarantee of the armed forces.

The investigation into the post, which appeared overnight on the Special Forces Reserve Union site, is to be carried out by the electronic crimes squad, misdemeanor court authorities said.

The posting, which claimed it was speaking on behalf of the special forces reservists and the Greek people, demanded “the immediate resignation of the government due to its inability to provide to the nation the constitutional rights to labor ... health, education, justice, security.”

A later posting on the same site criticized coverage by local broadcast media and blogs of the issue, accusing them of “trying to characterize us as coup instigators.”

“We don’t know of any coups being pre-announced internationally, and legally such a characterization lacks any seriousness,” it said.

The group has called for an anti-austerity protest rally in the capital’s central Syntagma Square on Saturday afternoon.

Government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou said it was unclear exactly who was behind the posting.

“It’s certainly something that should trouble us,” he said during a television news program. “But what I want to make clear is that in no case do such texts represent the vast majority of the men of the armed forces or the security forces, who are making great efforts under difficult conditions to defend our society.”

The first posting called for an emergency government to be set up under the head of the country’s Supreme Court and staffed by non-politicians, as well as for Greece to withdraw from all its commitments under its international bailout.

Greece has been dependent on rescue loans from the International Monetary Fund and other European countries that use the euro since May 2010. In return for the cash, it has imposed strict austerity measures in an effort to trim its massive debt and oversized budget deficit.

Poverty levels have been rising, with the country struggling through a sixth year of recession and unemployment at above 27 percent, the highest in the European Union.

The special forces reservists’ union have been vocal opponents of Greece’s bailout in the past, holding a uniformed protest march during a visit to Athens last year by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Germany is the largest single contributor to the country’s bailout.

The posting also called for special courts be set up to prosecute those responsible for Greece’s financial crisis and all property held by German companies, individuals or the state seized to pay off German World War II debts.

It also called for the expulsion from Greece of all migrants in the country illegally and for them to be banned from taking more than 20 percent of their income out of Greece; for lower taxation on low income families; and an end to public-sector firings, among other things.

“The institutional guarantor of all of the above could be the country’s armed forces, as a powerful selfless body against any threat,” it said. “The security forces are called on to secure the implementation of the above and the smooth transition to real constitutional legality.”

Πηγή :  washingtonpost.com/