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

[Ephilant]

I wonder why some people still vote for that party now, which was incomprehensible in terms of corruption.

Probably for the same reason some people in Ireland still vote FF, and some turkeys probably do indeed vote for Xmas. But the turkeys will at least end up being useful...

[disability student]

Probably for the same reason some people in Ireland still vote FF, and some turkeys probably do indeed vote for Xmas. But the turkeys will at least end up being useful...

Indeed that is the case.

[disability student]

Is there any chance of another general election in Greece? It would make Syzria party in much stronger position?

Syzria should highlight & educate the public re the Pasok's corruption along with ND strongly in order to lure & draw away many voters to solidify their core votes and increase their seats.

I believe the way forward is to educate the public (re-iterate again & again re their corruption) and it would raise a lot of awareness and perhaps embedded in their consciousness when it comes to votes.

[Ephilant]

Is there any chance of another general election in Greece? It would make Syzria party in much stronger position?

Syzria should highlight & educate the public re the Pasok's corruption along with ND strongly in order to lure & draw away many voters to solidify their core votes and increase their seats.

I believe the way forward is to educate the public (re-iterate again & again re their corruption) and it would raise a lot of awareness and perhaps embedded in their consciousness when it comes to votes.

I think Greece could very well be looking at another election by September. My crystal ball doesn't tell me who will win, I have a strong suspicion we will all end up losing, again.
Syriza does what it does, and that includes informing the people of what is going on whenever they can. It was Syriza who pointed out that our deputy minister for the Marine owned an offshore company, which is very much so against the law. Under the law he could be fined up to 500,000€ and get 5 years in jail for accepting the post while running an offshore company. He gave back the pocket money and walked away from government, and nobody does anything.
There is a very big difference between informing people and pointing out the wrongs that are happening under their noses, and educating them to the point that we get a cultural change making that corruption unacceptable as opposed to seeing being caught at being corrupt as "bad luck". The type of education that will bring that cultural change about is a long term project, in Greece a very long term project. But I do agree with you, it needs doing, and no better time than starting it now.
There are ways and means of forcing politicians to play it by the rules, but it means that the politicians need to change the rules that allow them to take the "leeway" they now take. And, sticking with turkeys, that's like asking turkeys to vote for Xmas, isn't it?

[Ephilant]

God, sorry Venizelos has had enough of the muted discontent in PASOK and bluntly told those who are not happy to get up and leave.

At a meeting he bluntly told the mainly, but not all, PASOK audience that he does not expect anybody to stay in the new PASOK and not be happy. "You are free to leave". How generous of him. The recreation of PASOK will begin at the party conference in the autumn. Just to make sure he has all eventualities covered and there are some people at the conference, he invited Dem Left and Ecologist people to attend and "explore ways to cooperate".

Meanwhile, Captain one-eye told his ministers they have 1 week to come up with
- viable proposals to collect 15 billion € savings as per Troika dictat
- a complete list of all buildings owned by their departments, probably so that more crown jewels can be sold off to friends and relations.

the list of buildings was demanded after a list of 28 state-owned companies "For Sale" was made public.

If the lists are not forthcoming, then the savings will be dictated by the PM and his minister for finance on a take it or leave it basis. Somehow, I have the impression that this is a power struggle within the government coming to a head. I'll stick to my prediction, elections in September (just after the PASOK recreation conference).

[riposte]

Thanks Ephilant for the update.

[Ephilant]

And the panto carries on...

Captain one-eye was left rather red faced when he went blowing his trumpet about savings that were being made through the "sacrifices" by the politicians. One of the "sacrifices" they made, according the the Captain, was the closure of the Parliaments Gym. A luxury we can't afford any longer said he.
And then the interviewer pointed out that the building which houses the gym belongs to the state and no rent is paid for it, while those employed in the Gym ar employed by the State on a permanent basis and get paid whether they work or not. So, in reality, no savings were made. But it looks good in the newspapers.
And to add insult to injury, it was then announced that we now have 49 newly appointed General Secretaries who will oversee the smooth running of the various ministries. The fact that we actually have a cabinet of 40 already, with ministers in place to run their allocated departments seems to be completely lost on the Captain. And the fact that the important ministries like Finance got 4 managers, Health 2 and Education 4, while "Development" got 9 managers is also totally lost on him. "Development" is a PASOK run ministry. You know, the party that didn't want to be directly linked to the government but would support it, those guys. Payback time for friends and relations?
But we have to tighten the belt even further and find another 15 billion. First target? Pensioners, with another 10% horizontal cut!
And then I thought, you know, this could be Ireland...

[Ephilant]

The Captain has let it be known that he is seeking a "bridging loan" from "our European partners" to tidy us over till September...
You've got to hand it to him, he is full of surprises. Happy Birthday Angela!

I am now seriously thinking of going into the bookies for the very first time in my life and put down a bet on September elections.

[Ephilant]

So, after hours of negotiations on where to find the 11.5 billion the Troika insists they find in 2012, the government has now made a statement. Well, God and Baby God did, Captain one-eye is suspiciously quiet and totally absent from any press briefings.
For all budding politicians, here's a master class in politics Greek style.
Neither the PM nor the minister for finance (the government) are present to brief the press on how the government intends on saving the 11.5 billion. The press are briefed by the 2 party leaders who do not want to be directly identified with this government, but promised to "support" it.
So, how about the 11.5 billion?

Veni goes like this
" the economic programme of 2012 will proceed as planned with the highest degree of social sensibility and there will be no need for additional measures."
He expressed confidence that the special payrolls [judges, state hospital doctors, military personnel and others] won’t be affected. And finally, there will be no horizontal cuts in the big economic programme of 2013.

Kouvelis goes like this:
"The government will try to make it easier for economically weak classes, there will be no cuts in the special payrolls" (So, judges, military, etc. are economically weak classes). We agreed on quick structural reforms and exploitation of public assets. We also agreed on the equitation of heating oil tax with fuel oil and benefits according to financial and geographic criteria. (So, the economically weak will be protected by DOUBLING the cost of home heating oil from September onwards!) We also agreed on measures to make it easier for the weak social classes to pay emergency property tax, possibility through payment in installments.The duty of the government is to combat the deep recession and unemployment.”
So, take put that in your pipe and smoke it!

The Troika is effectively being told by Veni and Kouvelos (but not by the government) that the governement will come up with about 7 billion instead of the required 11.5. Samaras (the government) will ask the Troika for a "bridging loan" to make up the difference of 3.5 billion plus of course the already clocked up arrears of 2 billion in the last 2 months.

And in September all 3 of them can go to the electorate and say that they tried their best, while none of them actually did a tap.

[Ephilant]

More fun and games.
Pressured by the Troika to collect eh emergency property tax, and with little time left to change the system previously used (mainly because they simply didn't bother trying), our obviously not so well functioning government has decided to once again add this tax to the electricity bills. This, despite

- a clear court ruling that this is illegal
- a clear court ruling that cutting electricity supply over non payment of the tax component is unconstitutional
- a VERY clear message from the Greek people that they will not pay and will take the electricity company to court if supply is cut
- the electricity company ending up with 2 billion € worth of as yet unpaid bills after the last time this was attempted

As a concession, the Greek people are "allowed" to pay the tax in 5 installments instead of in 1 go. However even on the minimum tax asessment, 1 installment is more than the average gross monthly wage for a full time worker.

Prediction 1: there will be no emergency property tax collected, but there will be literally hundreds of court cases bogging the court system down for years to come.

Prediction 2: we will see lots of so called "builders connections" again. In the really corrupt days, a "builders connection" consisted of a brown envelope going towards the builder, who in return bypassed the electricity meter and connected the premises directly to the main supply. The brown envelope also ensured no visits from the meter reader, but instead the "builders connection" guaranteed a "not connected" status for the premises.
Aaahh, those were the days when life was simple, no bills, no queueing in banks, no taxes, just envelopes...

[Ephilant]

Another one bites the dust!

CEO of Greece’s privatization fund (TAIPED) Costas Mitropoulos has just resigned. He only just took over from Yiannis Koukiadis, who resigned at the end of June.
Privatizing Greece sounds like a very unhealthy job....
Costas has not given any reasons for his resignation (yet?), but simply told Samaras it was curtains for him, with immediate effect.

According to the MoU, Greece is supposed to generate 50 billion from the sale of assets. So far, not 1 cent has been raised, and the fund has gone through 4 chiefs since its conception by Papademos last year.

[Ephilant]

After yet another resignation from a key position in Samaras government, and the possible implementation of maybe some of the saving policies insisted upon by the Troika, our friends in the Troika have let it be known that their next visit to Athens will be "brief".

Ok, that was the allocated 10 for Athens. Pint at the Acropolis bar before we hit Dublin?

The announcement of the visit being brief came after Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras publicly declared that Greece will not need any extra "measures" (=cuts) in 2012 to meet it's targets. Just another loan will do, thanks. During the same briefing, the minister added that he will also convince the Troika that the proposed cuts to civil service and military "special salaries" (a 13th and 14th month wages in July and Xmas) will equally so not be needed because we are experiencing a longer and deeper than expected recession (???). For the same reason he will tell the Troika that measures like the recent Vat hikes will need to be reversed.
With all these great new "initiatives", the Troika representatives will then report back to the Eurogroup members prior to the next summit, where Samaras will officially ask for an extra loan of 3.2 billion to pay back some or the other bond holders.
But just to be on the safe side, Kouvelis has warned the Greeks in a live interview on Skai that "bankruptcy is still very much a possibility".
It is hard to believe that closing down the parliamentary gym didn't have the expected effect of lifting us out of the trouble we're in

[fluffybiscuits]

More fun and games.
Pressured by the Troika to collect eh emergency property tax, and with little time left to change the system previously used (mainly because they simply didn't bother trying), our obviously not so well functioning government has decided to once again add this tax to the electricity bills. This, despite

- a clear court ruling that this is illegal
- a clear court ruling that cutting electricity supply over non payment of the tax component is unconstitutional
- a VERY clear message from the Greek people that they will not pay and will take the electricity company to court if supply is cut
- the electricity company ending up with 2 billion € worth of as yet unpaid bills after the last time this was attempted

As a concession, the Greek people are "allowed" to pay the tax in 5 installments instead of in 1 go. However even on the minimum tax asessment, 1 installment is more than the average gross monthly wage for a full time worker.

Prediction 1: there will be no emergency property tax collected, but there will be literally hundreds of court cases bogging the court system down for years to come.

Prediction 2: we will see lots of so called "builders connections" again. In the really corrupt days, a "builders connection" consisted of a brown envelope going towards the builder, who in return bypassed the electricity meter and connected the premises directly to the main supply. The brown envelope also ensured no visits from the meter reader, but instead the "builders connection" guaranteed a "not connected" status for the premises.
Aaahh, those were the days when life was simple, no bills, no queueing in banks, no taxes, just envelopes...

There was also a similar issue here where there was talk about adding the cost of the household tax on to utility bills but that in itself raises a few issues. What about if a person is renting and does not own a house (I presume they will charge landlords and house owners than renters) and it opens up a can of worms, none of which was thought through. Denying people access to basic services can only be seen to worsen the problem and lead to a number of deaths if people are going to be connected up to a dodgy electrical system. Denial of basic services, are they hoping to keep the peopel down for so long that there wont be a revolution of sorts?

[Ephilant]

Nine months ago, the Halyvourgia Steel Plant (a German owned company) stopped operating when the workers went on strike. They saw their wages savaged to absolute peanuts in order to "maintain competitevness". And have been on strike since.
It has also been proven since that the wage cost of the plant was and is not the problem. The cost of industrial energy is the problem, with exise duties on fuel going up with 300% in 1 year and the price of industrial electricity putting it out of reach of any business.
The Bulgarian president recently thanked Greece for its tax policies which have resulted in 3800 Greek companies leaving and setting up shop in Bulgaria and creating over 100,000 jobs.
2 months ago the courts in Greece declared the Halyvourgia strike "illegal" and Samaras has now decided to act. He send in the riot police, tear gas and all.
His message:

“The law will be applied. The right to work is sacred.”

Maybe he wants to implement that message and do something about 1.1 million unemployed people in the country?