Greek prime minister Antonis Samaras hit dramatic tunes about the state finances and the social situation of the country. Speaking to German daily Handelsblatt, Samaras stressed the necessity of the 31-billion-euro bailout tranche saying that Greece has money until the end of November. “Then the cash box is empty,” Samaras said.
“Antonis Samaras told a German paper in an interview published on Friday his country could not manage beyond November without the next tranche of international aid and suggested the ECB could help by easing the terms of its Greek debt holdings.
“The key is liquidity. That is why the next credit tranche is so important for us,” Samaras told the business daily Handelsblatt. Asked how long Greece could manage without it, he said: “Until the end of November. Then the cash box is empty.”
The European Central Bank could help by accepting lower interest rates on its existing Greek debt holdings “or it could approve a rollover when these bonds mature”, he said.
“I could also imagine the recapitalization of Greek banks as is being considered for Spain, which would be not accounted for on its state debts but carried out directly via the ESM. That would be a significant relief,” said Samaras.” (Reuters)
As for the political and social situation in Greece, Samaras warned of the high unemployment and the rise of neo fascist Chrysi Avgi (Golden Dawn) as “destabilizing”factors.
Samaras described Golden Dawn as “extreme-right, one could say fascist, neo-Nazi party.”
“Greek democracy is perhaps facing its biggest challenge,» he said and warned that if the coalition government fails in its task, “chaos awaits” the country, the Greek PM said. “The cohesion of society is at risk, should the reforms fail.”
Due to austerity measures and the dire economic situation, the Greeks “lost more than one third of their living standards within five years, Samaras told Handelsblatt, adding:
“German Chancellor Angela Merkel hit the right tune, when she mentioned that her heart bleeds in the face of such hardships,” Samaras said and spoke out an unofficial invitation to Merkel to visit Athens:
“She is welcome anytime.”
see also ekathimerini (ENG), Handelsblatt (GER)
PS Merkel in Athens? This I want to see…
UPDATE 40 minutes later: I wish I had wished something like 5 million euro… Angela Merkel will visit Athens next week, on October 9th 2012.
And which part of democracy is he referring to? The part where financial gangsters come in and take the little people have left of them, or is it the part where financial gangsters come in and tell a sovereign government how to run their country?
Or is it maybe that part of democracy where financial gangsters use international press to launch an unprecedented assault on the sovereign right of a people to chose their government without interference?
Or is it maybe that part of democracy where influential politicians in a country are bribed and bought and the people are made pay for the fall-out?
Or is it that part of democracy where fascist thugs are verbally admonished for attacking and killing people in the country with no real action being taken against them, because this travesty actually suits the financial gangsters (if not paid for by them?) in distracting people’s attention away from what is really going on?
The only threat to democracy here and in Europe is the continuous pampering of so called sovereign governments to the wishes of the financial gangsters instead of looking after the needs of their own peoples!
Very good question… Probably to the part where he and his cronies are protecting their power, status quo and the nomenklatura. And maybe the part where they are constantly succeeding in mobilizing people like you in shouting about international conspiracies so he and his cronies can hide behind that smokescreen, thereby fooling the people for a while longer and not having to face and deal with the real problems?
But on several points I do agree with you.
😉
Not sure if I like to be agreed with by ostriches… They tend to see only what’s right in front of them and affects them only. With the standard, predictable response of sticking their heads in the sand, thereby leaving their ass massively exposed to what is really happening all around them. They are usually the first ones to complain out loud that nobody told them this would happen when the shit really hits the fan…
Don’t underestimate ostriches. They got very big eggs. And as I understand lately, the size of their eggs is very important for guys like the president of parliament here in Greece. 😆
On a more serious note: if you recognize there is a murderer in your vicinity you could kill him before he gets you. But by blaming outsiders or society for his murderous tendencies you might loose your live before you can change those outsiders or society. So, who’s the ostrich then? 😉
I think you’re confusing balls with eggs 🙂 Eggs next week, when the Fuhrerin arrives, balls when dealing with the local scum 🙂
But on that serious note, You don’t just blame outsiders and leave it at that. You indeed remove the killer, but don’t leave it at that either. As you say yourself in another post, there is no society that is capable of dealing with this situation, everybody is of the “each for themselves” fraternity. That goes locally as well as nationally and internationally. The clearest example of needing both actions was given during the last Greek (?) elections. By not taking out the outsiders, Greece ended up with just another set of puppets. Same shit, different puppets, same puppet masters.
NUTS! 😆
But I do, in large parts, agree with you on the serious part of your reply.
Another fear mongering talking head insulting our intelligence. Long time ago, the Greek democracy has been replaced by an oligarchic political system. A system where powerful professional politicians protected by the security apparatus, represent the interests of corporations, the affluent, the foreign lenders and the country’s financial institutions, to the detriment of the rest.
Hasn’t the government of Greece made these sorts of announcements many times over the last two years, and yet when the deadline goes by there is somehow still money available?
of course it has: every three months, when the (next) bailout tranche is due. But at the end we’re saved and thus in 3-month intervals. miracolo! miracolo!
Deus ex Machina.
Although I have a strange feeling it will, in the end, be Diabaulus ex Machina.
And by that time, none of our present day “saviours” will be anywhere close enough to pull them up and ask “Why?”