Bankruptcy looms, Greek PM warns

[HeresyLives]

Bankruptcy looms, Greek PM warns


Renee Maltezou and Dina Kyriakidou

Athens — Reuters
Published on Tuesday, Mar. 02, 2010 11:19AM EST

Last updated on Tuesday, Mar. 02, 2010 1:19PM EST


Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said Tuesday his country was fighting for survival against bankruptcy and urged civil servants and pensioners to accept sacrifices to save the debt-burdened nation.

In a dramatic speech to his Socialist PASOK party on the eve of a cabinet meeting expected to approve new austerity measures, Mr. Papandreou said: “I will fight to save the fatherland from whatever the nightmare possibility of bankruptcy might entail.”

Under pressure to meet European Union demands to find up to €4.8-billion euros in additional savings before he visits Germany Friday, he played up the risk of default, saying speculators had made borrowing costs prohibitive.

“If anyone thinks that this is a remote nightmare scenario, they don't realize what the situation is,” he said. “Each day we discover new holes, new landmines, in the budget deficit.”


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/bankruptcy-looms-greek-pm-warns/article1486789/

[LakeSamish706]

1. Yeah, but what are he and his rich friends willing to give up? n/t

[HeresyLives]

2. Young Greeks welcome austerity moves

Many Greeks are infuriated by what they see as a foreign intervention in their economy, and are preparing mass protests. But Ms. Panouli is a member of Greece's self-proclaimed “700 Generation” – well-educated under-35s who are unable to find jobs paying more than the minimum wage of 700 euros a month. While many have participated in mass protests and general strikes against the government and the European Union in recent weeks, there is widespread frustration among this generation with years of government inaction and a sense that Greece's problems are self-created.

Olli Rehn, the EU's top financial official, plans to continue meeting with the debt-plagued Greek government today to get it to impose strict austerity measures, including raising the retirement age above 61, increasing the sales tax beyond 19 per cent and freezing the pay of public employees, who currently earn a two-month bonus on top of their salaries.

-snip-

Ms. Panouli's friend and former nursing-school classmate, Efterpi Morala, also 30, is on the other side of the divide. She is one of the lucky members of her generation who have been able to find a public-sector job. The state hospital pays her several times more than her friend, plus benefits better than those in many of Europe's wealthiest countries. But she feels that something needs to change, and layoffs might help.

“Every day I go in to work and there are five of us on the nursing floor but only one person's worth of work is done – the contract gives us all sorts of reasons to employ people who collect money but do nothing,” she said, voicing a common Greek complaint about a public service that has become an insiders club.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/europe/young-greeks-welcome-austerity-moves/article1486241/