(no one is allowed to speak of the "troika" any longer) have refused to budge on demands that Athens institute serious fiscal reforms.

Now, with time running dangerously short, and with looming payments to the IMF and to public sector employees and pensioners, the people are growing restless.

In today's protest, perhaps just as much to celebrate the arrival of spring, 4,000 miners demonstrated in Athens against job cuts they fear will result from the hard-left government's opposition to continued exploitation of their gold mine in northern Greece.

According to AP, "scores of buses transported miners from the Halkidiki region of Greece – about 600 kilometers (370 miles) north of Athens – to protest the SYRIZA-led government's decision last month to review the concession granted to the mines Canadian operator, Eldorado Gold.