Council of State hears case against ongoing lawyers’ strike
The Council of State, Greece’s highest administrative court, on Friday reserved judgment in a case filed by two lawyers challenging the constitutional legitimacy of an ongoing strike called by the country’s bar associations in protest at social security and tax reforms.
Lawyers Panayiotis Kalantzakos and Antonis Xenakis called on the court to overturn the bar associations’ decision to continue the strike, which started at the beginning of the year and was this week extended to May 24 to coincide with a meeting of eurozone finance ministers on Greece’s reform progress and talks for debt relief.
After hearing arguments from the two lawyers and from representatives of the country’s bar associations, the court reserved the right to discuss its decision and issue a judgment at a later date.
The strike has led to a massive backlog of cases at the country’s already overburdened courts and delays in major trials, including that of far-right party Golden Dawn.
