German Chancellor Angela Merkel “ordered” Greeks to hold a ‘euro referendum’ together with June elections. Merkel conveyed her ….thoughts to president Karolos Papoulias when she called him on Friday morning. In a statement released by the office of the Greek prime minister, it is said that Panagiotis Pikrammenos briefed the leaders of the seven parliament parties on the content of the conversation between Merkel and Papoulias.
“Mrs. Merkel reiterated the EU support to Greece’s efforts to overcome the crisis. She also mentioned that the EU intends to consider strengthening policies for growth and to combat unemployment in Europe. The issue of development is also a key issue to be addressed by the Special EU Summit on 23 May in Brussels.
“She also conveyed to the President of the Republic thoughts about a referendum alongside elections, a referendum with the question whether Greek citizens wish to stay in the eurozone.
It is obvious that the issue is outside the responsibilities of the caretaker government. “
How the Greeks reacted to the blatant intervention to the politics of a sovereign state? To the unprecendent case that the leader of a state asks another souvereign state to hold a referentum?
From what I heard on TV, Venizelos (PASOK) said a referendum is not possible due to long-lasting preparations.
Kouvelis (Democratic Left) rejected the idea.
Communist KKE rejected it right away.
A professor of Constitutional Law told MEGA TV that, a referendum needs:
A) cabinet decision, which is not possible by an interim government
B) majority voting at the Parliament – the parliament is to be dissolved tomorrow Friday due to June-17 elections
C) A question “Yes or No to Euro” is problematic
A friendly reminder: when ex PM Papandreou brought the euro-referendum on the agenda in November 2011 in Cannes, Merkel threatened him with euro exit.
READ OUR SATURDAY UPDATE ON EURO-REFERENDUM HERE
PS what do they drink, over there in Germany?
I think the EU is going to take over the Greece government.
Not going to happen. All other EU governments are totally fed up with Greece and would love to see that troublemaker exit the currency (don’t believe the diplomatic statements to the opposite). Nobody has any desire to take over that nuthouse. What could be gained from that, really? For any EU governor, it would be extremely hard work with nothing but criticism, political pain and ruined nerves in return. Greek people don’t even support their own elected government’s reform attempts. An outsider would have no chance at all. Nobody’s masochistic enough to even consider this.
So suddenly now it’s the EU vs Greece, as though Greece is not a part of Europe, separate entities.
What do they drink, over there in Papoulias’ office? Do those translators hear voices in their head? Does the president have hallucinations?
“Berlin Denies Suggesting Greek Membership Vote”
http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&ct2=us%2F0_0_s_10_0_t&usg=AFQjCNGfZ04YTzPTkI19GG4WpXZ7d10XKA&did=bbff2cca83062458&cid=17594034221233&ei=8zO3T8jEC8fe-AabyQE&rt=STORY&vm=STANDARD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702303360504577412313487390918.html%3Fmod%3Dgooglenews_wsj
Btw, this whole nonsense doesn’t sound like Merkel at all. She never comes up with any new ideas, this would be much too risky for her. Instead, she waits until a majority has formed which supports one option and then loudly declares that this alternative has been her policy all the time! This way, she can never be on the losing side of the discussion. Political observers and enemies have criticized her missing initiative and the slow decision making for years, rightly so, imho.
here there was talk late last night that also Schulz suggested a euro-referendum. I’ll have ot pick up the issue again today
Uh huh. Did Papoulias confuse Schulz with Merkel, maybe?
😀
possible lol
Thank you for your (inside) insight on Mrs Merkel. I believe I’ll trust you. 🙂
thank you, we try our best 🙂 Read our Saturday update – an even more inside insight lol
May 19 (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel asked Greek President Karolos Papoulias what he thought of the idea of holding a referendum on Greek membership in the euro but did not push it, a journalist who said he overheard their conversation wrote on Saturday.
http://is.gd/a150g9
In fact, the idea came up from a meeting of EU finance ministers, and Merkel just wanted to make sure to be on the winning side of this discussion from the very beginning.
in fact she asked to speak directly with the BILD reporter, but the president turned down her request…
That sounds more like her. Testing the waters first, avoiding to make a definitive statement until ensuring there’s a solid support for the idea. Did the translator screw it up? Weird.
As a non-German German speaker… 😉 that is what I was thinking about. Should not happen in international exchanges, but it does. Especially when one of the participants is sure to be fluent in a language, but in reality isn’t. And a 80+ politician might just have lost some of his former capabilities? And most Greeks are anyway not as fluent in their languages as they often think.
Other observation is that this is the second time in a couple of weeks where there are opposing versions of events with this president standing on one of the sides. Last time it was about a ‘non-paper’ from the Independent Greeks.
Last observation: all parties jumped for joy when the PMs office told them this alleged referendum-push. Therefore there was a vested interest in all of this.