Since taking over, Soria and Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, of the center right Partido Popular, have followed an austerity-heavy strategy to deficit reduction, with cuts proposed across the energy sector.

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France's fishermen, another grumpy lot, came off best from his tax package, aided not by direct cuts in their fuel costs, but by a special reduction to the heavy social taxes they pay as employers.

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But this rescue package will deliver only a modest reduction in the back-achingly heavy burden of Greek indebtedness.

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