Romanian President Traian Basescu signed on Monday the decree designating Victor Ponta, leader of the Social Democrats (PSD) and co-head of the Social Liberal Union (USL) as prime minister of Romania. The move comes as the USL, the alliance of PSD and the Liberals (PNL), obtained a large majority of votes in the December 9 parliamentary elections.Ponta has been serving as prime minister for seven months. In spring this year, his alliance replaced a rightist government who had only spent several weeks in office. Over the seven months, USL's main focus was a battle with President Basescu, which included a failed and controversial referendum to remove him from office.
A presidential press release on Monday announced Victor Viorel Ponta was designated candidate for prime minister, in charge with forming a new government due to be validated by the Parliament.
The press release says that during consultations between political parties and the President on Monday morning there was only one proposal for prime minister. As a result, President Basescu designated Ponta as candidate for prime minister.
Ponta has ten days to form a government and come before the newly elected Parliament to receive the vote of support. The USL leader has said he wanted to move faster than that so that Romania have a government by Christmas.
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Walkout details
Thousands of teachers, doctors and municipal workers are expected to take to the streets and rally in central Athens around midday local time (10am GMT), Reuters reckons.
In an official statement, ADEDY said the strike had been called because:
The serious problems that workers in the public sector face, because of thousands of firings and understaffing, underfunding and the abandonment of public services, as well as the whole of Greek society... requires that we continue with and escalate our struggle and mobilisations.
The main private sector union, GSEE, has called a three-hour walkout, from noon till 3pm local time (10am-1pm GMT).
Living in Greece lags up that domestic flights will be disrupted by a walkout by ADEDY members, with Olympic Air cancelling seven flights and rescheduling another five (details here). International fights are not expected to be affected, though.
It also appears that suburban railway services are disrupted today.
Greek public sector workers hold strike action
Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of the eurozone financial crisis, and other key events in the world economy.
Greece is ending the year where it spent most of 2012 - in the spotlight. Public sector workers are holding a 24-hour general strike today, in protest at the country's austerity programme and the prospect of looming job cuts.
The walkout is the latest attempt to derail Athens' fiscal reform programme, and was called by the ADEDY union. It hopes for a decent turnout.
As ADEDY chief Costas Tsikrikas said:
We demand that the government changes these unjust policies that hurt workers and kill the public sector....
We expect a large turnout in the strike.
The strike comes as Athens digests a rare endorsement from the credit rating agencies. Last night, Standard & Poor's upgraded Greece's rating by a vertiginous six-notches, from "selective default" to "B-minus".
S&P praised the eurozone's "strong determination" to keep Greece in the currency union, and Athens' own progress.
Quite a turnaround from six months ago, when pundits were falling over themselves to predict Greece's imminent ejection from the euro....
As usual, I'll be tracking the action across the eurozone today.
Bad news for the levelling up of trade imbalances in the eurozone. Tremble, ye mighty! The german export miracle has discovered ... the truffle.
Truffle Paradise in Southern Germany: Botanists Uncover Culinary Treasures (spiegel, english)
The walkout is the latest attempt to derail Athens' fiscal reform programme, and was called by the ADEDY union.
A presentational tip for Samaras. When confronted with Trade Union protests openly trying to stop government policy, you will be tempted to echo former british PM Ted Heath, and ask
"Who runs Greece?"
Don't do it. It didn't work for Heath, either.
Gelion
19 December 2012 8:32 AMLink to this comment
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I wonder if in a parallel universe somewhere the settlements in the Eurozone and in the UK are actually fair, in that it is not the majority who are shouldering the burden for the $3 TRILLION worldwide banking bust?
Without the bankers lending lending lending Greece would not have been able to get into this situation.
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Self
19 December 2012 8:37 AMLink to this comment
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'Without the bankers lending lending lending Greece would not have been able to get into this situation.'
Without the politicians spending, spending, spending to buy votes Greece would not have been able to get into this situation.
The same applies to most other European countries, not least the UK, where the government is doubling the debt during this parliament.
Yes, doubling the debt. Remember that when the Guardian and the BBC talk endlessly about 'cuts'.
Berlusconi, who announced this month he will again lead his People of Freedom party (PDL) in a national election expected in February, said on a talk-show on state broadcaster RAI that the ECB should become a lender of last resort for the currency bloc.
"If Germany doesn't accept that the ECB must be a real central bank, if interest rates don't come down, we will be forced to leave the euro and return to our own currency in order to be competitive," Berlusconi said in comments reported by Italian news agencies Ansa and Agi.
The 76-year-old media tycoon has made similar remarks in the past about the possibility of Italy, or even Germany, leaving the euro, but has often at least partially rectified them later, Reuters reported.
Berlusconi is already campaigning hard for the election with a spate of television interviews in an attempt to close the wide gap with the centre-left Democratic Party which is polling at above 30pc, some 14 points above the PDL.
Berlusconi was forced to resign as prime minister in November last year as Italian bond yields surged at the height of the euro zone debt crisis.
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