First up - Do the Greek pols want to bow down to the ever changing demands of Brussels ?
Greece Draws The Line As Unity Government Leaders Refuse To Cede To Further Troika Austerity Demands
It appears that Greece will not even have to wait until the dreaded March 20 funding D-Day. As was earlier reported, Greek PM Lucas Papademos may resign if he is unable to persuade his coalition unity government to agree to further Troika demands for additional austerity. It now appears that there will be no agreement, and thus the primary demand from the Troika for further cash disbursement will not be met. The FT reports: "All three party leaders in Greece’s teetering national unity government have opposed new austerity measures demanded by international lenders, forcing eurozone finance ministers to postpone approval of a new €130bn bail-out and moving the country closer to a full-blown default. Representatives of the so-called “troika” – the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund – have demanded further cuts in government jobs and severe reductions in Greek salaries, including an immediate 25 per cent cut in the €750 minimum monthly wage, before agreeing the new rescue. But representatives of all three coalition partners, including centre-left Pasok of former prime minister George Papandreou and the centre-right New Democracy of likely successor Antonis Samaras, said they were unwilling to back the government layoffs." Now we have been here before, and as a reminder the last time Greece threatened to pull out of Europe with the G-Pap referendum threat back in the fall, G-Pap was promptly replaced with the Trilateral Commission member and former ECB Vice President, Lucas Papademos. The problem is that for him to obtain power, he needed to form a coalition government. Well, that now appears to be in tatters, as not one party is willing to break to the Greeks that the minimum wage of €750 will be cut even further. The question is who will blink first this time, as it is quite likely that neither the Troika nor Greece want an out of control default. Unless, of course, this was Germany's plan B to the imposition of a Greek commissar all along...
Conversely , are the feelings of the Greek pols mutual in Brussels ?
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_14493_03/02/2012_426005
Troika turns up the pressure on party leaders
Sources told Kathimerini on Friday that three new demands had been made by the officials representing the European Commission, European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund - known as the troika. Visiting officials asked Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos to include military personnel, employees at public utilities that are to be privatized and teachers among the 150,000 civil servants to be fired by 2015. The troika is also demanding the immediate overhaul of the public administration and evaluation of civil servants. Greece’s lenders are also asking for a supplementary 2012 budget to be drawn up and passed through Parliament, given that Greece’s economy performed worse than expected last year. The new budget will have to include about 4 billion euros’ worth of extra measures that were not in the fiscal plan voted through the House in December. Sources said that the troika has made it clear that if this step is not taken, Greece will not receive in March a loan of 89 billion euros, which will be made up of the remainder of its first bailout and the first installment of the new deal. The troika has already said that it wants the government to focus less on tax hikes and more on spending cuts, so the 4 billion euros in savings is likely to come from a reduction in expenditure on defense, municipalities and drugs. Health Minister Andreas Loverdos said this week that a ceiling of 2.9 billion euros would be set for public spending on medicines. The EC, ECB and IMF have also asked for savings on public sector wages by introducing a new salary structure for doctors, military personnel and judges from this year. All of these issues, as well as the controversial topic of lowering the minimum wage and cutting private sector salaries, will be tabled at Papademos’s meeting with the party leaders. Sources said the prime minister is determined to reach some kind of conclusion at the end of the meeting. If the party leaders fail to agree, Papademos will ask them to allow him to negotiate with the troika or to include Papandreou, Samaras and Karatzaferis in such talks. Government spokesman Pantelis Kapsis ruled out the possibility of Papademos resigning. And - what Plan B ? Unless B stands for bankrupt .....
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