Proposed overhaul of state-run pension system divides Greece

Athens: Greeks are divided on the need for changes to the state-run pension system, an opinion poll showed, as the government of Prime Minister George Papandreou prepares to push an overhaul of the programme through parliament.

More than 35 per cent of 1,002 people polled by Kapa Research for To Vima newspaper said the pension overhaul bill was unfair, yet necessary.

Some 14.2 per cent fully supported the bill by saying the changes were necessary and imperative. Nineteen per cent said the changes are "catastrophic" and 29.6 per cent said the bill should be withdrawn.

Parliament will vote on Thursday on changes that will include increasing the retirement age, curtailing early retirement and calculating payments over a longer period of employment.

Greek unions called a sixth general strike the same day lawmakers vote on the pension overhaul.

Changes to pensions and the way workers are hired and fired are required by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund in return for 110 billion euros (Dh507.3 billion) of emergency loans to avert a default on Greece's debt.

The pension vote will be a test for Papandreou and his Pasok party after the May 6 vote on the package that pledged 30 billion euros of wage and pension cuts and tax increases over the next three years.

Three of Papandreou's lawmakers rebelled over the package, leading the premier to expel them from his Pasok party. That left him with 157 lawmakers in the 300-seat chamber.

"I have confidence in Pasok lawmakers," Papandreou told the Eleftherotypia newspaper.

"I believe that we all understand the responsibility we have to change the country."

The Kapa poll showed 70.4 per cent were opposed to government plans to reduce the cost of firing workers, with 82.9 per cent opposed to lifting restrictions on the number of workers who can be fired.

Papandreou's party would receive 23.4 per cent of the vote were elections to be held July 11, the poll showed, with the center-right New Democracy party receiving 15.6 per cent. Forty per cent said they didn't know who they'd vote for.