;)
tagged: Athens, consensus, debt, default, economic crisis, George Papaconstantinou, Greece, IMF, not reached, over, political leaders meetingGreece: Political Leaders Failed to Reach Consensus on IMF-Austerity Package
Posted by keeptalkinggreece in Economy, Politics
Four hours were not enough for Greece’s prime Minister George Papandreou to convince all political leaders, especially main opposition party centre-right Nea Dimokratia, of the necessity of consensus on the middle term IMF/EU/ECB austerity plan for the years 2011-2015. The failure bell was rang by Giorgos Karatzaferis, chairman of the far-right party LAOS. “Some gave preference to their chair than to Greece. We’ll see!” Karatzaferis told media right after the meeting under the chairmanship of the President of the Republic. In good English, Karatzaferis meant that some political leaders preferred not to take any political risk by giving their consent to the IMF austerity package and lose their voters.
Greek media and websites claim that after the denial of ND-chief, Antonis Samaras, PM George Papandreou allegedly told him:
“I will continue alone – Elections in 2013″
These two short but meaningful statements triggered a shap drop of the General Index at the Athens Stock Exchange, bringing it down to -244% at 1,259,12 units. Earlier the ASE was gaining, some +2, 27%. Thank God, the meeting was not concluded earlier…
Will PM Papandreou manage to survive politically until 2013, two whole years from now? Good question!
While you contemplate on our prime minister’s political present and future, read our article What if Greece won’t get the 5th IMF-tranche? and go enjoy a nice and peaceful Friday evening….
Oh, and if you don’t get a clear economic and political picture, reboot your computer or try again later!
“
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
I think it is necessary to explain one point and that is that Greece makes 100 and spends 200. Now private companies do not spend the countries money, they make the countries money. If however there is little or no work then they cannot pay their taxes and the only people that benefit are the bankers charging them anything from 10 percent to 16 percent interest on bank loans. Therefore the problem with Greece is that it overspends on the public services mainly due to over employment, corruption and nepotism. Now we know that Papandreou was discussing with the IMF months before as the infamous Strauss Khan admitted this quite openly, this was long before the 2 stooges (Yeorgos 1 & 2) publicly admitted that we were in dire straits. We know that the USA supported him through the elections. Why did he go to the IMF first and not advise us all immediately and go first to the EU? Karamanlis lost the election because he told us all frankly that we had to make serious changes and subsequently lost the election. Sadly he had just agreed with Putin in Russia a multi-million dollar pipeline which would have created thousands of jobs in the North of Greece. Papandreou abolished the idea, I wonder why?
At this time my Greek Husband’s hair which was grey (due to stress) has now turned white. He doggedly supported ND, complained the Karamanlis should have implemented the measures he promised at elections as soon as Olympic Games were over, but still swore blue. Tonight he is wondering around in a daze, he didn’t want Samaras ( none of my friends, neighbours or past employees wanted him either (1 communist, 2 PASOK, 21 ND’s)he wanted Bakoyianni. This because they all blamed Samaras for the downfall of Mitsotakis government, as he left and formed his own party (utter failure) a few days after Mitsotakis asked for information on Intracom. What country would then a few years later give him the position of running the party, not even a third world country. They also thought that a woman would be more firm on corruption and more likely to get things done instead of sitting around blabbing. Actually I heartily agree there as Greek women are far more practical then their male counterparts. My Husband voted for ND because he thought that their aim was to cut public expenditure by cutting back on the amount of public workers, stop their additional additional payment on reaching retirement age, privatise sections which do not cover their costs such as OTE (especially after we had a minor problem with cable connection in the factory and they sent 2 OTE electrical engineers and one Albanian, the 2 engineers yapped together for half an hour while the Albanian changed the cable) and stop early retirement pensions. Talk with unions as we have fare too many and we have to have collective bargaining and not strikes. Now, head in hands he is asking why Samaras didn’t agree to these measures when they are exactly what ND voters have been asking for over the past 20 years. There are only two reasons, one that they are all scared out of their wits as to what will be the reaction of the Greek populace (obviously their mothers didn’t whip the plaster off quickly but wasted 1/2 an hour explaining how it could hurt and then another 1/2 hour slowly removing the plaster hair by hair) or they assume that in politics even if the country is on the brink of collapse you cannot work together to save it,you have to be in opposition, even when you agree on the measures to be taken. Help EU, we do not want to damage the Euro, we are not all thieves and vagabonds, our parliament is a circus. As for you Papandreou, this is quite biblical, the sins of the father are on your shoulders, you won an election with promises that anyone with half a brain knew you couldn’t keep, your voters assumed like your father you could trick the EU and the rest of the financial world into propping you up. Now take the consequences.