Power union leader defies tax threat - The Best from Greece

The head of the powerful electricity workers union, Genop-DEI, has vowed to protect vulnerable consumers from a new property tax that could see households' power supply cut off before Christmas.

 

Nikos Fotopoulos said his union is drawing up lists of the unemployed and low-income Greeks to protect them from the new tax.

 

The emergency property tax is being levied in two instalments over the winter, after the finance ministry acknowledged tax offices were potentially incapable of doing the job.

 

Household that fail to pay the tax with their bill will have their power cut off. But Fotopoulos said workers at the state-run Public Power Corporation (DEI) were determined to defy that order. (Athens News/gw)