Letting
Greece Twist In The Wind
Wolf
Richter
24
August, 2012
With impeccable
timing,
it seeped to
the surface that a group of ten experts at the German Finance
Ministry is studying ways to deal with a Greek exit from the
Eurozone. Though rumors about a “Plan-B” had been circulating for
months, the leak provided details. A Finance Ministry spokesperson
clarified helpfully on Friday, rather than denying it, that the group
has been in existence for over a year. Impeccable
timing because
it happened as Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras was arriving in
Berlin for his begging and charm expedition. German Chancellor Angela
Merkel must have smiled. The heat was on.
They
should be soul mates, Samaras and Merkel, both belonging to
conservative parties. But during the prior government when he led the
opposition, he fought tooth and nail against her sacrosanct
structural reforms. So their schmooze on Friday must have been quite
something. But at the press conference, she said,
“I want Greece to remain part of the Eurozone.” And she knew of
“no one in the governing parties who doesn’t want that.”
Yes,
she said that! Despite the onslaught of politicians in her government
who over the past months promoted Greece’s exit—even hours before
the meeting, on ZDF’s morning TV show. Maybe Merkel didn’t watch
it. “We cannot provide more money,” Volker Kauder, Chairman of
her CDU/CSU parliamentary group, told Germans nationwide. And
Greece’s exit, he added, would be “no problem for the euro.”
Nevertheless,
she soldiered on: “Commitments must be kept.” And warned, “Words
must be followed by deeds.” She was “deeply convinced” that the
Samaras government would do “everything” to solve the problems,
but any decision would have to wait “for
the Troika report.”
Ah-ha.
Inspectors the EU, the ECB, and the IMF will spend much of September
combing through Greece with a fine-toothed comb to come up with a
report, the big
report, the one that would determine if Greece deserved more bailout
billions. The report would be so big that every politician, even
Merkel, could hide behind it. No one would want to be the one to kick
Greece out. But the faceless Troika report issued by a
triple-layered, non-democratic bureaucracy could take the heat
[read.... Greece
Prints Euros To Stay Afloat, The ECB Approves, The Bundesbank Nods,
No One Wants To Get Blamed For Kicking Greece Out].
She
laced her speech with meaningless expressions of support but didn’t
commit to anything. It was a good beginning, she said, but much work
remained to be done—sounding like a broken record.
But
she can’t change her tune easily. In a poll released on
Friday, 72% of Germans were against giving Greece the third bailout
package that would be required if Greece were given more time to
implement its reforms; 67% were against giving Greece more time, and
61% thought Greece should return to the drachma. So a switcheroo
would be costly for her.
“We’re
a very proud people, and we don’t want to be dependent on borrowed
money,” Samaras said when
it was his turn. “We don’t want more money. We need time to
breathe.” Then he lamented the
“toxic declarations” by a “high-ranking politician”—a jab
at vice-Chancellor Philipp Rösler, Volker Kauder, or any of the
others. How could they publicly discuss that Greece would revert to
the drachma? That’s why no one wanted to invest in Greece. It was
rendering the privatization of state-owned enterprises impossible.
Greece needed investment, not austerity, he said.
So
Merkel grabbed his balls and yanked: She’d been reading the Greek
tabloids..., she said—the papers that had been depicting her with
Hitler mustache and Nazi uniform—as if to say, look, this is
politics ... tit for tat. Then she jabbered about “two realities”
in Germany and Greece that would have to be brought back together.
He
deemed the discussion “especially constructive.” For Merkel, it
was “intensive.” In other words, they hadn’t agreed on
anything. Samaras packed up his bags empty-handed. Nothing would
happen before the Troika report. And then Merkel could hide behind
it. She has been on record from day one that she wanted Greece to
remain in the Eurozone. No one could blame her. Greece would run out
of money, default, and revert to the drachma on its own. And voters
couldn’t blame her for throwing more of their money at Greece to
keep it in the Eurozone another year or two. So maybe she’d hang on
to power, something almost no head of state has been able to do in
the debt crisis.
Yet,
hope is once again gushing through the system that the debt crisis
could be wished away by a nod from Merkel, a wink from the
Bundesbank, or a click of the mouse at the ECB. But in Greece there
has been an incident.... Euro
Optimism Surges, A Greek Tax Revolt Flares Up: It’s Decision Time,
Again.
Merkel
and Hollande sidestep Greece's plea for breathing space
Angela
Merkel and Francois Hollande pledged to keep Greece in the eurozone,
but offered Greece no immediate relief from its current regime of
painful austerity measures.
25
August, 2012
Francois
Hollande, the French president, said that Greece must stay in the
eurozone but must first prove it is determined to overhaul its
economy so Europe can do its part and move on from the debt crisis.
Following
talks with the Greek prime minister, Antonis Samaras, on Saturday, Mr
Hollande said that "Greece is in the eurozone and Greece must
stay in the eurozone".
But,
he cautioned: "It still has to demonstrate the credibility of
its programme and the willingness of its leaders to go the whole way,
while doing it in a way that is bearable for the population."
“Once
these commitments, which are not only financial but about structural
reforms that the Greeks want, have been ratified by parliament and
confirmed, Europe must do its part,” the French president added.
However,
Mr Hollande side-stepped Greece's request for more time to implement
the harsh austerity measures its creditors insist upon.
As
part of a €130bn bailout package from the EU and IMF, Greece has
committed to sweeping reforms and some €11.5bn of cuts in 2013 and
2014. But, it is thought that Mr Samaras wants two more years to make
the cuts.
The
Greek prime minister has used interviews with German and French
newspapers over the last week to call for more time to meet the
targets set out under the bailout agreement, saying Greece needs some
"breathing space".
But
neither Mr Hollande nor the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, have
responded directly to that request.
After
talks with Mrs Merkel on Friday, the German chancellor pledged to
keep Greece in the eurozone, saying she was "deeply convinced"
that the new Greek government was “doing everything to solve the
problems. But, she refused to address Greece's plea for more time.
Germany's
finance minister on Satuday reaffirmed his opposition to giving
Greece more time to carry out promised reforms. "More time
generally means more money and that very soon means a new [bailout]
programme," Wolfgang Schaeuble told the Tagesspiegel on Sunday
newspaper.
Mr
Hollande indicated that any decision on delays for Greece must wait
for a report next month by the "troika" of Greece's debt
inspectors
"We've
been facing this question for two and a half years, there's no time
to lose, there are commitments to reaffirm on both sides, decisions
to take, and the sooner the better," he added.
Addressing
Mr Hollande's concerns about Greece's commitment to reform, the Greek
prime minister said his government will meet its obligations.
“Of
course we need to make an effort,” said Mr Samaras. “We can keep
our promises and goals, reduce our deficit and debt, accomplish
structural reforms.”
The
Greek leader also dampened talk of the nation potentially exiting the
eurozone, saying: "Many say Greece won’t make it, that it
can’t stay in the euro. I came here to say Greece will make it, it
will stay in the eurozone."
Separately,
Der Spiegel reported on Saturday that Mrs Merkel had called for a new
European Union treaty to further integration, but was facing lukewarm
interest from her European partners
Migrants
protest Greek wave of racist attacks
Over
3,000 immigrants flocked to the center of Athens to protest the wave
of xenophobic attacks sweeping Greece. Racist violence has seen a
marked increase in the wake of the financial crisis, with NGOs
condemning police indifference to the attacks
RT,
25
August, 2012
Thousands
of protesters marched on the Greek parliament in Athens in one of the
largest anti-racist rallies the capital has ever seen. They carried
banners emblazoned with the slogans "No Islamophobia" and
"Neo Nazis out!"
Some
protesters brandished banners implicating Greek far-right party
Golden Dawn, which has been accused of inciting xenophobia and racial
violence.
Golden
Dawn MP Ilias Kasidiaris attacked the Greek government for allowing
the rally to take place.
“The
constitution protects gatherings of Greeks and not of foreigners,”
he said in a statement.
The
protests follow a countrywide police crackdown on illegal immigration
in Greece. The Greek government provoked immigrant ire after rounding
up hundreds of undocumented immigrants in the town of Corinth and
holding them in a nearby military camp. The move sparked protests
from residents and local authorities, rallying against the creation
of a detention center in the town.
"We
will do everything possible to prevent such a disaster,"
Corinth's mayor Alexandros Pnevmatikos told Skai TV. "We don't
want the camp, which is in the center of the city close to
densely-populated neighborhoods, to become a holding center."
Pnevmatikos
threatened to cut the camp’s water supply and rubbish disposal if
the 350 migrants held there were not released.
Far
right supporters of Golden Dawn clashed with police outside the army
camp on Thursday and hurled bottles at a deputy who had come to visit
the camp.
The
nationwide campaign to curtail illegal immigration has been dubbed
"Xenios Zeus" after the ancient Greek god of guests and
travelers. The Greek authorities have thus far arrested thousands of
illegal immigrants.
Police
turn blind eye to racial violence
Greece’s
minister for public order announced on Thursday that a special unit
would be created within the Greek police to combat the “phenomenon
of racist violence.” The move came after several rights groups
criticized Greece for its failure to curb the rise in xenophobic
attacks.
Human
Rights Watch released a report last month condemning Greek police for
their failure to act of cases of racial violence.
"Migrants
and asylum seekers spoke to Human Rights Watch of virtual no-go areas
in Athens after dark because of fear of attacks by often black-clad
groups of Greeks intent on violence,” said the report.
The
document also implies collusion between Golden Dawn and local police
forces in connection with the attacks.
The
extremist party denies any connection to the racial attacks sweeping
Greece.
Last
month Golden Dawn spokesperson Ilias Kasidiaris said that immigration
was a government conspiracy to turn Greece into “a wretched
protectorate inhabited by subhumans, with no conscience, with no
country, with no national culture.”
One
of the party’s solutions to immigration is to mine areas along the
Greek border where high concentrations of immigrants cross into the
country.
Golden
Dawn currently has 18 seats out of 300 in the Greek parliament and
has seen a rise in popularity in the wake of an increase in
unemployment and crime levels.
The
Unvarnished Truth About Greece
24
August, 2012
While
Belize is comfortable buggering bondholders, the Greeks (following
this morning's headlines) remain beholden to their euro-zone
overlords - having survived a few more months on the back of
reach-around 'bailouts' and ponzi-financing - all in the effort of
providing more time for the 'rest of Europe' to figure out how to
handle the 'Athens moment' that is surely coming. With September and
October critical 'event-rich' months, Patrick Young, of DV Advisors,
provides the clearest and least 'rose-tinted' perspective on where
Greece has been, where they are now, and where this will all end.
From the forged application for euro-zone membership to Oz-like
fantasies of growth and austerity targets that remain pipe-dreams
(and are constantly being missed), the bold Irishman in this brief
clip explains "Greece has not done anything to really help
itself, missed every deadline its been given" and the PM's
comments on their 'spectacular come-back' clarifies the 'utter
delusion' among the Greek political class because "Greece is
bankrupt; full stop; game over" and Merkel must agree to 'let'
Greece leave the Euro (post Troika) - as the rise of civil unrest,
since whatever new money flows their way exits right out the back
door and never 'helps' the people, is inevitable.
Especially
following these mixed headlines (via Bloomberg):
*HOLLANDE:
PEOPLE SHOULD STOP ASKING IF GREECE WILL STAY IN EURO
*HOLLANDE
SAYS GREECE HAS TO DEMONSTRATE CREDIBILITY
*SAMARAS
SAYS GREECE WILL STAY IN THE EURO ZONE
- Alexander Dobrindt, general secretary of the Christian Social Union, said he sees no way around Greece leaving the euro area, Bild am Sonntag reported, citing an interview.
- Dobrindt sees Greece out of the euro in 2013
- Greece should receive EU support when it leaves the currency union and have the option of returning: Dobrindt
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