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| With the boot on the other foot, the current plight of the Dutch economy will cause knowing smiles in Greece. (photo: Reuters) |
For months Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager has subjected Athens to regular dressings-down on the dire state of its finances. Now, with his coalition brought to its knees by a row over budget cuts, Greeks may detect a whiff of hypocrisy.
Even by the standards of the blunt-talking Dutch, De Jager hasn't minced his words in demanding that Greek leaders submit to EU demands for punitive austerity measures - or forget about getting any help to avoid bankruptcy.
So blunt were some of his comments that he helped to provoke a response from the Greek head of state, who normally stays above the rough and tumble of daily politics. "Who are the Dutch?" asked an angry President Karolos Papoulias in February.
Monday's resignation of the Dutch coalition over a failure to agree on budget cuts which are modest compared with those endured by Greeks aroused no sympathy in Athens.
"This serves the Dutch right. They haven't understood that the crisis is pretty much hitting the whole of Europe, not just Greece," said Nikos Karagiannis, 32, a state employee whose pay has been cut 40 percent under the austerity regime.
The problems of the Netherlands, one of the euro zone's strongest economies and most stable democracies, are minor compared with those of Greece, which is suffering the fifth year of what some politicians call a depression.
De Jager himself dismissed any thought that the Dutch crisis put his country in the same league as Europe's sick economies. "There is no correlation whatsoever between the Netherlands and the countries of southern Europe," he told Reuters on Monday.
Dutch state debt is about 65 percent of annual economic output, he noted. Greece, by contrast, hopes to cut its debts to almost twice that by 2020 from 165.3 percent last year.
The Dutch row is over whether to cut the budget deficit to the EU target of three percent of GDP next year. For Greece, such levels are only a dream: last year Athens got its deficit down to 9.1 percent, but only after cuts which have helped to send unemployment to record levels.
POWERFUL COMMISSAR
De Jager, a short, plump figure who looks younger than his years, has rarely held back in saying that European countries in trouble will have to accept greater oversight of their budgets.
"You can't solve a debt crisis with more money, that is the lesson from this crisis," the 43-year-old minister said last year. "You need more tools, you need budget oversight."
Only last year De Jager and Prime Minister Mark Rutte - who offered the cabinet's resignation after a party it relies for support on refused to back the austerity cuts - proposed an EU budget authority run by a powerful commissioner.
This could intervene in government budgets if countries ignored debt targets, gradually taking over their finances and potentially expelling them from the euro zone.
Greek conservative leader Antonis Samaras, a frontrunner to become prime minister after the May 6 election, dared to question whether policies which have destroyed economic growth might be modified.
This drew another lecture from De Jager, who backed in blunt terms an EU demand that Greek leaders make written undertakings on implementing austerity laid down in a 130 billion euro bailout deal. Words were not enough, he said.
"We have passed that stage. We want a signature from this Mr Samaras," De Jager told RTL. "Otherwise they won't get money, absolutely not."
Nevertheless, while the Netherlands enters a dangerous period of uncertainty, Greece is enjoying at least a temporary period of relative calm following several years of turmoil.
Greece's national unity government is due to step aside after elections next month having achieved its aims of passing a 2012 austerity budget, pushing through a bond swap to reduce its debts, and securing the bailout from the European Union and IMF.
Many Greeks feel critics like De Jager are dangerously out of touch in a crisis which threatens the entire euro zone. "I think there's a possibility that the euro will break down," said Karagiannis. "It seems the Dutch and others don't get it."
The comments hurt. "I don't care what happens to the Dutch," said the owner of an Athens coffee shop who declined to be named. "What really bothers me is that all politicians in the big European powers are saying vote for me so that you don't end up like Greece," he said, adding that his sales had dropped 50 percent and taxes almost doubled under the austerity regime.
De Jager, an entrepreneur from the Christian Democrat party, in fact doesn't hold back from predicting dire trouble, albeit with the blame beyond Dutch borders.
"If Greece falls, many European banks will fall as well," he tweeted in March 2010 as acting finance minister. "All hell will break loose if there is another crisis," he said on Twitter, drawing fire in parliament. (Reuters)
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http://www.athensnews.gr/portal/11/55132
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| Bond swap deal brings 7000 people to court |
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 | 23 Apr 2012 |
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| There may be few of them, compared to the total percentage of completion, but the few thousand bond holders who lost out during the bond swap procedure, are not going down without a fight. (file photo) |
Approximately 7,000 bond holders were represented in dozens of class action suits currently before the Council of State, Greece's supreme administrative court, contesting government decisions for a haircut of Greek bonds.
The number of cases before the court reached 72 on Monday, with as many as 200 plaintiffs represented by each suit, while the nominal value of the bonds in question amount to dozens of billions of euros.
Among the plaintiffs are several companies, such as pharmaceutical companies and suppliers of medical equipment and consumables, the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry, professional associations and social insurance funds.
The ACCI, for example, claims in its suit that the decision has slashed its reserves from nearly 11 billion euro on March 9 to just 5.6 billion euro at present, while it emphasises that these amounts were not the result of state subsidies but exclusively from the contributions of its members. (AMNA)
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http://www.athensnews.gr/portal/8/55131
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| Greek election a puzzle that could derail bailout |
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| 23 Apr 2012 |
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| As the crunch date of May 6 looms into view, we are still no closer to understanding what the post election landscape will hold, a situation that puts the future of the country at risk. (file photo) |
Greek voters are unlikely to pick a clear winner in a snap election that is expected to send a record number of parties to parliament next month and test the international bailout keeping the country afloat.
Political analysts say the outcome of the May 6 election is hard to predict.
The conservative New Democracy party is seen ahead but not by enough to take sole charge of the indebted euro zone member.
This could lead to days or weeks of negotiations while it forges a coalition with the Socialist Pasok party, to impose austerity and reforms to meet the terms of a second 130 billion euro bailout from Europe and the International Monetary Fund.
"It's a great puzzle," said Theodore Couloumbis of the ELIAMEP think tank. "I hope the pro-bailout parties will be able to form a government. This is the most likely scenario."
The two main parties have backed the coalition government of technocrat Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, formed in November, when ex-premier George Papandreou stepped down after an internal party revolt over his handling of the crisis.
Europe's debt troubles have had major political implications throughout the region. Ten euro zone governments have been swept from office since the start of 2009, many paying the price for drastic spending cuts aimed at improving public finances.
The crisis has also led to a rise in support for populist parties, with voters angry at unemployment, austerity or the cost of bailing out other debtors casting protest votes to make it harder for traditional political forces to govern.
The last Greek opinion polls published before Friday's cutoff date, showed 8-10 parties may enter parliament, including extremists riding a wave of public discontent with bigger parties blamed for decades of scandals and mismanagement that brought Greece to the brink of bankruptcy.
New Democracy leads with about 23 percent of the vote and the Socialist Pasok comes in second with about 16 percent. The two - the only major parties to support the bailout - would need about 35-40 percent of the vote to form a government together.
After that, four smaller parties each garner about 10 percent of the vote - three leftist groups plus the Independent Greeks led by newcomer Panos Kammenos, an anti-bailout, New Democracy rebel.
GOLDEN DAWN
The ultra-nationalist Golden Dawn is expected to enter parliament for the first time with about 5 percent of the vote, tapping far-right LAOS voters angered by its support for the coalition government of Papademos in November.
In Greece, other smaller groups also have a chance of crossing the 3 percent of the vote barrier to get into the 300-seat house. Among them is the pro-bailout party of Dora Bakoyanni, a former foreign minister who splintered from New Democracy in 2010.
"For the first time in 40 years, people are not voting left versus right but pro-bailout versus anti-bailout," ALCO pollster Costas Panagopoulos said.
"We cannot exclude any scenario - the picture may stay the same or the two main parties may be boosted."
The "troika" of IMF, EU and ECB lenders have said the election is a big risk to the fiscal steps and reforms Greece needs to deliver to get cash and turn its ailing economy around, including 11 billion euros worth of new measures in June.
The outlook depends on whether New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras and Pasok leader Evangelos Venizelos can set aside differences and forge a viable coalition. One sticking point is who gets to be prime minister.
Samaras is hoping a last-minute polarisation of voters will get him enough ballots, or at least get close, to ruling alone. If his numbers look good, he could force another election to see if can get a boost to give him an absolute majority but prolonging the political uncertainty for weeks.
If he is forced to cooperate with other parties, analysts say Pasok is his sole option as the only other pro-bailout party but he will insist on being prime minister.
Venizelos, hammered by EU peers as finance minister during the debt crisis, single-handedly revived the fortunes of Pasok after it plunged to fifth place in opinion polls under Papandreou.
Winning by a landslide in 2009, Papandreou's government underestimated the problem that plunged the whole euro zone into crisis. It dragged its feet, promising pay rises and other handouts instead of taking immediate measures.
Forced later to slash salaries, pensions and social benefits, it plunged the economy into its worst recession in decades. Unemployment has rocketed to over 21.8 percent, with one in two youths without a job.
VIOLENT PROTESTS
People frustrated with the measures and the impunity of politicians they hold responsible for the crisis have taken to the streets in violent protests, shaking fists at parliament and chanting "Thieves! Thieves!"
"They stole, they pocketed our money and I voted for these thieves for years. I feel betrayed," said pensioner Maria Bogiopoulou, 65. "I will vote for a small party."
Venizelos won the Pasok leadership battle uncontested last month. He has already said his goal is not to be prime minister and aides say he would rather find a figure of wider acceptance to lead the new government, which should include many parties.
But his main differences with Samaras are over policy. New Democracy angered EU partners when it voted against the first bailout, saying it would not work.
Feeling vindicated when Greece plunged into its fifth year of recession, Samaras, 60, said he supported the second bailout because of a bond swap that cut Greek debt by 100 billion euros.
But he has made clear that although he accepted the deal's goals, he could get there by offering some relief to the disaffected, reducing taxes and boosting the economy.
"The only thing we must do is to cut public sector waste," he told supporters on Sunday. "We are asking for a clear mandate so we can do what must be done, what the country needs."
Venizelos, 59, a constitutional law professor and socialist veteran, is more faithful to the measures he personally negotiated with the EU and the IMF. But he would spread them over three years instead of two to lessen the burden on people, an option that he has secured with partners, he said.
"The best scenario would be a Mario Monti-style coalition lead by a technocrat like Papademos," Couloumbis said. "The worst would be if the anti-bailout parties manage to forge a coalition but it's unlikely as they disagree with each other." (Reuters)
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