Italian Mayors Donate Their Salaries To Greece

Sun, 19/02/2012 - 03:39 — Savvas Hadjigeorgiou

"Greece gave us civilization and Italy and Europe are not its brothers but its children," said Marco Galdi, mayor of Cava dei Tirreni in Italy, in a letter addressed to EU, Greek and Italian leaders after announcing his decision to donate his salary to the Greek people.

Meanwhile in Greece students and protesters gathered in Syntagma square to thank the "We are all Greeks" movement for the huge rallies of support in more than 20 cities all over the world.

Galdi sent a letter to the President of the European Commission Jose Barrosso, the Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti and the Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos announcing his decision.

"Europe today is being judged. If it abandons Greece it will definitively reject a certain idea of Europe, a Europe which we want and love," Galdi wrote.

"There is a lot of anger but we have no desire to see blood on the streets. What is clearly happening is a rebellion of ideas, a revolt in the way people see the world and part of that is a refusal to submit to the injustices that the EU and IMF are handing out, which will become very clear when elections take place in Greece in April." He added.

Giovanni Mosciatello from Baronissi, near Salerno Italy also pledged to donate his salary to support the Greek people saying that "it is a symbolic act to show solidarity with the Greeks."