Taxman handed children in protest over Greek cuts

Dozens of angry Greek parents handed over their children to bewildered officials yesterday in a symbolic protest against the abolition of tax breaks for large families as part of cuts demanded by foreign lenders.

“Here you go, you can raise them,” Nikolaos Smoloktos, head of the group representing Greeks with three or more children in the town of Drama, told the tax director.

The parents held banners reading “Stop killing our families” as they walked into the director’s office and pushed their children towards him.

The cash-strapped government has pledged austerity measures of about €12 billion (£9.6bn) for 2013 and 2014 to try to secure more aid from the European Union and International Monetary Fund to keep it afloat.

But the conservative-led coalition has come under growing pressure from Greeks, who have begun a series of protests and strikes against the latest round of cutbacks.