National Unity government to be formed in Greece / Greek General Elections

[Ephilant]

Some good news?
Christine Lagarde (IMF)has stated on Niewsuur that the IMF is willing to talk to any "legitimately" elected government the Greek people will elect on June 17th. She did say who she would prefer to talk to, but if we choose differently, then so be it.
Or is this putting in the ground work to declare a possible SYRIZA victory as "illegitimate"?

[disability student]

Some good news?
Christine Lagarde (IMF)has stated on Niewsuur that the IMF is willing to talk to any "legitimately" elected government the Greek people will elect on June 17th. She did say who she would prefer to talk to, but if we choose differently, then so be it.
Or is this putting in the ground work to declare a possible SYRIZA victory as "illegitimate"?

Ephilant,

I appreciate your news on the other side as it's interesting particularly the human side of it that the papers don't print.

Keep up your good work as i'm huge fan of the Greek islands. Went there three times (3) on island hopping with glorious sunshine and truly magnificent beaches. It's idyll especially Paros, Mykonos,Delphi, Ios, Kos and the magnificent Samaria gorge in Crete.

[Ephilant]

Ephilant,

I appreciate your news on the other side as it's interesting particularly the human side of it that the papers don't print.

Keep up your good work as i'm huge fan of the Greek islands. Went there three times (3) on island hopping with glorious sunshine and truly magnificent beaches. It's idyll especially Paros, Mykonos,Delphi, Ios, Kos and the magnificent Samaria gorge in Crete.

thank you, much appreciated. And yest, the islands are indeed great. It's 27C here right now

[Ephilant]

So, we now all know where he stands. Mr. Hollande had a very well kept "secret" meeting with Venizelos today, in Paris! Not only that, but Venizelos was described as "the representative of the Greek people". You might want to ask the Greeks about that one Mr. Hollande. At best 15% might agree with you, the rest will tell you in no uncertain terms what "The Greek People" think of this individual.
But at least, Mr. Hollande has now shown his hand. And it's a dirty one, very dirty...

[disability student]

So, we now all know where he stands. Mr. Hollande had a very well kept "secret" meeting with Venizelos today, in Paris! Not only that, but Venizelos was described as "the representative of the Greek people". You might want to ask the Greeks about that one Mr. Hollande. At best 15% might agree with you, the rest will tell you in no uncertain terms what "The Greek People" think of this individual.
But at least, Mr. Hollande has now shown his hand. And it's a dirty one, very dirty...

Other guy -anti austerity party was very good and well spoken. Would like to see him run Greece as biggest party hopefully in next Greek election.

Btw, when you mention 27oC in Greek islands ..very tempting

[Ephilant]

Other guy -anti austerity party was very good and well spoken. Would like to see him run Greece as biggest party hopefully in next Greek election.

The "other guy", Tsipras, made some waves in Berlin today as well. He is very outspoken, very direct, but not offensive. Just doesn't mince his words. He met with the representatives of "Linke", the umbrella organisation of German Leftist parties, a bit like SYRIZA in Greece. He reitterated to the German people that what he is doing is not just in the interest of Greece, it's in the interest of Europe. In fact, it's the survival of Europe that is on the line here, and despite the German Government's best efforts to keep that hidden from the general European population, it is slowly but surely beginning to sink in. And as mentioned a few times, also on this forum, Tsipras does in fact see Greece emerging out of this as a leading light instead of a millstone around Europe's neck. He could of course not resist when the news broke that Veni did get his meeting with Hollande to lash out at Mr Hollande, and referred to him as Hollandreou in a clear reference to a gibe made by Sarkozy during the French presidential elections when describing Hollande as somebody who will say anything to get to power, and then do nothing, like Papandreou in Greece. It's a sad day when I find myself agreeing with Sarkozy, but he seems to have called this one right, unfortunately.

When asked by the press if he (Tsipras) had come to Berlin to seek a meeting with Merkel, he said that his main objective was to meet with the German people, because they are the only important people in Germany. He said that with that objective in mind, he had sought to meet German political parties across the board, and the Christian Democrats had declined (probably at the direct order from the Fuhrerin. [my comment]).

”A vote for the left does not mean that we would leave the euro. Quite the opposite, we would keep the euro, I do not think that a rejection of the austerity programme means that the country would have to leave the eurozone. We will try to find solutions at a European level and I am convinced we will be able to succeed. We are of the opinion that people can realise their mistakes and change things.We expect a lot of changes in the Franco-German axis.”

As I said, if nothing else, he is direct...

[Ephilant]

While Tsipras is over in Berlin, the 18 other members of the SYRIZA governing committee have not been idle either. After May 6th, SYRIZA pledged it would remove the 50-seat bonus system, put in place by PASOK which ensured a PASOK dominated government for such a long, disasterous time in Greece.
The only snag was that SYRIZA was actually never registered as a politcal party, but always as a coalition of lots of different smaller parties. Under the 50 seat rule, that actually excluded them from getting the bonus themselves, even if they became the overall winner in an election. It would mean that we could have ended up with SYRIZA winning the elections, but New Democracy ending up with more seats because as the largest "party" they would get the 50 seat bonus. Corruption Greek style...

Today SYRIZA has applied to the High Court in Athens to be recognised as the SYRIZA Unionist Social Front Party. This should be a formality, after which they will go on and by all indicators win the election on June 17th and claim the 50 seat bonus. Ironically, that bonus will then become it's own undoing, because the new party-to-be has reitterated that once in government they will change the election laws and abolish this bonus. they are even talking about a change to the constitution to prevent future tampering with the laws to suit "certain individuals".

[disability student]

While Tsipras is over in Berlin, the 18 other members of the SYRIZA governing committee have not been idle either. After May 6th, SYRIZA pledged it would remove the 50-seat bonus system, put in place by PASOK which ensured a PASOK dominated government for such a long, disasterous time in Greece.
The only snag was that SYRIZA was actually never registered as a politcal party, but always as a coalition of lots of different smaller parties. Under the 50 seat rule, that actually excluded them from getting the bonus themselves, even if they became the overall winner in an election. It would mean that we could have ended up with SYRIZA winning the elections, but New Democracy ending up with more seats because as the largest "party" they would get the 50 seat bonus. Corruption Greek style...

Today SYRIZA has applied to the High Court in Athens to be recognised as the SYRIZA Unionist Social Front Party. This should be a formality, after which they will go on and by all indicators win the election on June 17th and claim the 50 seat bonus. Ironically, that bonus will then become it's own undoing, because the new party-to-be has reitterated that once in government they will change the election laws and abolish this bonus. they are even talking about a change to the constitution to prevent future tampering with the laws to suit "certain individuals".

Forgive my ignorance re Greek politics, how many seats must they win to govern an overall majority? 50 seat bonus is quite unusual as it's doesn't happen here.

From my reading of it, that PASOK were corrupt by placing 50 seats bonus to guarantee their longer lasting power in govt correct?

[ang]

This is "normal" today in Greece. Not so very long ago, Bank of Greece raided the funds in various accounts to pay off a variety of foreign banks. Nobody said anything (ostrich policy is also very common in Greece) and a month later cheques issued by various hospitals, surgeries, etc, for supplies, started bouncing everywhere. Despite promises to "refund" the accounts and get cheques paid, nothing has been done, and hospitals, community health centres, etc. have been left without any funds. Tomorrow, 23/05/2012, pharmacies in Greece go on strike in protest against money owed to them by EOPYY, the new Health Insurance umbrella company. After raiding the various funds, the then pennyless funds were amalgamated into EOPYY, also pennyless. Pharamicsts are owed a total of 520€ million. These days they also refuse to hand over prescription medicine on "credit".
"Insured"customers have to fork out the money and then go and claim it back from the insurer themselves. But nobody has the money in the first place, and as EOPPY is broke and can't pay back, you end up with situations like this.

On the other hand, a hospital closed down in an effort to "save money". Staff literally left in the evening, switched off lights and locked the doors. Some doctors started working in the street hospitals, offering free medical aid whenever they could. They realized that the "closed" hospital had all the stock (medicines, bandages, tools, you name it) still in it, happily going out of date. So they went back in and took what they could, so it could be used to help people out. they are being sued for theft. Authorities were happy enough to leave things rot away inside, but once put to good use....

We need a serious change of government, which we seem to be heading for. But more than anything else, we need a serious shift in attitude in certain quarters. Size 12, where the sun don't shine. Sideways...

Outrageous. I agree and size 12 sideways a good idea but rather mild considering what has been done to Greece.

[Ephilant]

From my reading of it, that PASOK were corrupt by placing 50 seats bonus to guarantee their longer lasting power in govt correct?

This is politics my friend, you can't go around calling a spade a spade. You'll probably end up being labeled leftist scum

In good old Greek fashion, PASOK invented a "creative" approach to the election legislation which would make it easier (for them) to form a government. The Greek parliament has 300 seats in it, but we only vote for 250 of them to be filled. Seriously complicated calculations translate % of votes into an amount of seats. The party that gets the highest % of votes, is considered the biggest party in the country, and as a reward for being this, they get the extra 50 seats allocated, no contest. Brownie points so to speak. Or, if you want to, jobs for the boys, or of course, down right corruption boosting techniques. So, hopefully you will follow the PASOK logic, we now vote on 250 seats, meaning that 126 seats constitutes a majority in terms of votes. In reality this represents 42% of the vote only, which happens to be round about the vote% that PASOK expected.They even gave themselves a "cushion", because the 50 seat rule actually meant that if they only got 32% of the vote, or 101 seats, they would still be the biggest party, claim the 50 seat bonus and end up with 151 seats, magically giving them and overall majority with only a 32% share in Parliament. How is that for a vote-rigging system?

[DCon]

Some Greek news:

EFSF to loan the banks 18 Billion: http://www.forexlive.com/blog/2012/0...t-their-money/

Papademos:

Former Greek PM Papademos is on the wires saying preparations for a Greek exit are being considered and that the risk is real.

He says the scope to renegotiate the bailout is “very limited” and he estimates a cost of 500 billion to 1 trillion euros.

http://www.forexlive.com/blog/2012/0...emos-piles-on/

A trillion euros. Remember when a Million was a lot, then when a Billion was a lot..ah the good old days

[Ephilant]

Good old Papademos, still being a good puppet... News here says he is going back to the fold with a job offer in the EU. They're welcome to him. One way ticket only please.

[Ephilant]

Oh yes, and SYRIZA will be know as the SYRIZA UNIFYING SOCIAL FRONT, not the Unionit social front. Sorry..

[Ogiol]

jaja, bad mistake to make for an irish audience there ephilant

[Ephilant]

I realised...