Greece updates - September 19 , 2013 ... Aftermath of Pavlos Fyssas murder continues to roil Greece ... Will there be further austerity - depends on whether you listen to Troika representatives or PM Samaras .....Quarterly unemployment drops for the first time in four years - down to 27.1 percent....

Samaras pleads for calm and unity in wake of Fyssas murder Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said on Thursday that his government would not allow the “successors of the Nazis” to destabilize Greece in the wake of the murder of antifascist rapper Pavlos Fyssas by a Golden Dawn member. “Democracy is much stronger than its enemies realize,” said the New Democracy leader in a brief televised statement. Samaras pleaded with the public and his political colleagues not to allow further violence. “Violence is a downhill slide that destroys any chance of Greece achieving what it deserves, in other words growth, prospects and prosperity,” he said. “This is not the time for internal disputes or tension,” added Samaras with a reference to the damage being inflicted on Greece’s image abroad. Samaras’s statement appeared to be in a different direction to comments made by his close adviser Chrysanthos Lazaridis on Wednesday, when he blamed SYRIZA, as well as Golden Dawn, for political violence and suggested that the leftist party was not part of the “constitutional axis”. Meanwhile, the Council of Europe expressed its concern on Thursday about the rise of extremism in Greece and across Europe in the wake of Fyssas’s murder. “This murder stems from an extremely dangerous development we are seeing in Greece and also other parts of Europe,” said Council of Europe secretary general Thorbjorn Jagland. “Sections of society are becoming more radicalised and there is a real risk that hate speech turns into violence and cold-blooded murder. “I support the Greek government’s efforts to conduct a rapid investigation of Golden Dawn’s involvement and to uphold the rule of law in the face of current protests. We cannot tolerate racist radical groups disrupting democratic society."

ekathimerini.com , Thursday September 19, 2013 (13:40)  Civil servants' union to meet Friday to discuss further action The executive branch of the umbrella union representing Greece's civil servants is due to meet on Friday to discuss the next step in industrial action that began on Monday with rolling strikes in several domains of the public sector, from schools to hospitals and social security foundations, as well as with rallies in several Greek cities, including Athens. ADEDY will decide on Friday whether to continue with the protests, which are held in reaction to demands by Greece's creditors for a smaller civil service, that will see thousands of public sector workers out of a job or being placed in a mobility scheme on reduced wages as they undergo an evaluation of their qualifications and job performance. ADEDY on Thursday also called for civil servants to joint a protest event being organized by former workers of the defunct state broadcaster ERT. The event will include a concert at ERT's former headquarters in the northern Athenian suburb of Aghia Paraskevi at 7.30 p.m. ekathimerini.com , Thursday September 19, 2013 (14:24)  German MPs call for Greece to forgo scheduled assumption of EU presidency Two German MPs have called for Greece to forgo its scheduled assumption on January 1 2014 of the European Union's rotating presidency, claiming that the debt-ridden country should not be burdened with the financial cost of the task, an estimated 100 million euros. Klaus-Peter Willsch, of the Christian Democratic Union, the party led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, told the mass circulation Bild that Greece should ask the European Commission to put off its assumption of the bloc's rotating presidency otherwise the country might need a further loan package to cover it costs. Frank Schaeffler of the liberal Free Democratic Party said Greece should «voluntarily withdraw from the presidency.» ekathimerini.com , Thursday September 19, 2013 (12:00)  PM’s promise worries creditors  Samaras pledge against any new austerity measures has troika concerned over the new bailout package By Sotiris Nikas Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’s statement in Brussels after his top-level meeting with European officials on Tuesday, in which he said that there will be no more austerity measures, has raised concern among the country’s troika of creditors. Officials of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund have been saying in the last few days that the government is wrong in saying no additional measures will be required. According to a Financial Times report published on Wednesday, senior troika officials are saying in private that they are concerned about Samaras’s insistence there will be no new austerity conditions attached to a further bailout package, adding that this is a promise the PM will not be able to keep. The same report noted that this also weighs heavily on the heated debate over whether the eurozone creditors should take losses on the loans already provided to Greece and what new austerity measures should be imposed in order to keep the program on track. However, after a meeting yesterday between the prime minister, Deputy Prime Minister Evangelos Venizelos and Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras, the latter told reporters, “I do not see any new measures in the horizon,” and added that things are going just fine. Stournaras’s counterpart in Berlin, Wolfgang Schaeuble, also appeared optimistic on Wednesday, telling German newspaper Die Zeit that Greece will emerge from its recession and increase its gross domestic product faster than the rise of its debt as of 2014. “We conducted a debt haircut in 2011. We shall not do that again. There will not be a second debt haircut,” he stated four days before the German general election. Schaeuble added that “last year almost no German spent their vacation in Greece because the cost-service balance was more favorable in Turkey. Now [Germans] have returned to Greece as it has reduced its labor costs by 13 percent.” He conceded that the general population in Greece is suffering and that the local elite is not suffering as much. ekathimerini.com , Wednesday September 18, 2013 (23:03)  Quarterly unemployment drops for first time in almost four years, to 27.1 Quarterly unemployment figures in Greece fell for the first time in almost four years in the second quarter of 2013, declining from 27.4 percent in Q1 to 27.1. The Hellenic Statistical Authority said the number of Greeks employed in Q2 stood at 3,632,184 people, while the number of unemployed amounted to 1,350,435. Despite the quarterly drop, unemployment still stood 3.5 percentage points higher in Q2 this year than a year earlier. The number of employed persons increased by 1 percent compared with the previous quarter, and decreased by 4.2 percent compared with the Q2 of 2012. The number of unemployed persons decreased by 0.4 percent compared with the previous quarter and increased by 15.5 percent compared with Q2 of 2012. Unemployment for the 15-24 age group was at 59 percent and at 44.4 percent for those between 25 and 29. Quarterly unemployment figures are not seasonally adjustment. ekathimerini.com , Thursday September 19, 2013 (12:24)