It looks very likely there will be mass demonstrations in Athens to
mark Angela Merkel's visit next Tuesday. Our correspondent Helena
Smith has spoken with the radical left-wing main opposition Syriza party, and
they are confident that the German chancellor will be met with vocal
protests.“She should expect demonstrations. Greek society will welcome her with
mass protests,” Panos Skourletis, the party’s spokesman told me, emphasizing
that Syriza’s leader Alexis Tsipras would not be meeting the German chancellor.
“Firstly, we have no intention of meeting her,” said Skourletis. “Secondly, we
will propose that trade unionists aligned to Syriza meet with other trade unions
in emergency session to decide on holding a general strike on the day of the
visit. Demonstrations will obviously coincide with the strike.” Protestors
would be united by an over-riding demand: to abolish the brutal austerity that
was pushing societies across Europe, and especially Greece, to the brink, he
said.The Independent Greeks party, also vehemently anti-bailout, has said it
will make war reparations a major part of its own protest when it stages a
“symbolic blockage” outside the German embassy in Athens on Tuesday.
Access Investments-Building Awareness - European Union-ROMANIA
Saturday, October 6, 2012
It looks very likely there will be mass demonstrations in Athens to
mark Angela Merkel's visit next Tuesday. Our correspondent Helena
Smith has spoken with the radical left-wing main opposition Syriza party, and
they are confident that the German chancellor will be met with vocal
protests.“She should expect demonstrations. Greek society will welcome her with
mass protests,” Panos Skourletis, the party’s spokesman told me, emphasizing
that Syriza’s leader Alexis Tsipras would not be meeting the German chancellor.
“Firstly, we have no intention of meeting her,” said Skourletis. “Secondly, we
will propose that trade unionists aligned to Syriza meet with other trade unions
in emergency session to decide on holding a general strike on the day of the
visit. Demonstrations will obviously coincide with the strike.” Protestors
would be united by an over-riding demand: to abolish the brutal austerity that
was pushing societies across Europe, and especially Greece, to the brink, he
said.The Independent Greeks party, also vehemently anti-bailout, has said it
will make war reparations a major part of its own protest when it stages a
“symbolic blockage” outside the German embassy in Athens on Tuesday.
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3 comments:
If the “Lagarde list,” as it has inevitably become known, had been passed on to the relevant authorities at the start, they would have evaluated its contents and acted according to the law; that would have been the end of the affair, most likely in favor of the public treasury. In that case, no politician or state official would be obliged to explain himself today - and all this while we know nothing about the contents of this list. In the case of the “36,” we do not know who leaked the news of the probe of politicians so prematurely, nor their motives.
For many years, our politicians undermined institutions so that they could improvise and act as they wished. Now that times are tough they are lost, tangled in the web of their arbitrary actions. Unfortunately, some institutions are undermined by the very officials who staff them, who use them either for their personal gain or political expediency. And so a shadow of intrigue and suspicion hangs heavy over the land, tainting every effort at reform and revival
The furor concerns claims of negligence on the part of two former PASOK finance ministers and two former heads of the Financial Crimes Squad (SDOE) who apparently did not investigate the 2,000-or-so names in a list given to then Finance Minister Giorgos Papaconstantinou by his French counterpart, Christine Lagarde, in 2010.
This comes after questions were raised regarding a list of 36 names of political figures being investigated by the SDOE - names that we know without knowing what they are accused of, nor how credible their accusers are. At the same time, the Financial Ministry is sifting through some 15,000 names (from a list of 54,000 who moved money abroad), as they cannot justify the size of their foreign accounts.
Even as the protagonists in the lists’ controversies claim that their actions were governed by propriety and institutional procedures, it seems that they are called upon to explain themselves precisely because they ignored institutions.
It is abundantly clear that the Greeks are being asked to wear the wrong size of shoes, and they don't like it. That's hardly surprising, but what is the alternative. Either pay for their past expensive tastes by being forced into penury and losing sovereignty, or going back to the drawing board and starting with a relatively clean sheet, and with a pair of shoes that fit. The EU 'recovery' terms are igniting a civil war as mass unemployment creates despair, and people can see no end to it. Europe has been very hard on the Greeks, possibly deservedly so, but they don't have to take it. They have arrived at 'make your mind up' time, as have the Spanish. Either go with the austerity plan, and suffer the consequences, or walk away and start again. Neither is a good option, but there is a' best/ worst' case scenario in there somewhere, and only the Greek people can chose what way they want to go.
I think we all know what Europe wants,but lets face it, Europe has not been very good at sorting out the mess the Euro has created with a plan that doesn't add up
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