"Greece has met its obligations, now it is the lenders’ turn to fulfil theirs." This is the most iconic phrase in the Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’ recent speeches both in Greece and during his frequent visits abroad.
A few months ago, the government announced that 2013 would be the first year after the beginning of the financial crisis when Greece would report a budget surplus, albeit small. At the same time, the tax rates in the country continue to rise and the programme of privatizations and reforms in the public sector remains only on paper.
On the eve of the visit of the supervisory Troika’s representatives Minister of Finance Yiannis Stournaras had reiterated that no cuts of all salaries and pensions had been planned for 2014. The Minister had added, however, that the pensions paid by the so-called "noble" funds of banks and state-owned enterprises as well as by the insurance fund of freelancers could be cut. A day later, Deputy Prime Minister Evangelos Venizelos said that these are rumours, scenarios and threatening information "which are causing a commotion among the people and are throwing them into confusion," and stressed that Prime Minister Samaras and he are determining the government policy.
At a meeting between the two today, Samaras and Venizelos will sign a framework agreement, a roadmap, regarding the future of the bipartite cabinet. It is also expected that they will discuss a common strategy relating to the talks with the lenders’ representatives. According to the Greek media, the leaders of New Democracy and PASOK will sign a text which contains the following main lines: exiting the memorandum, regulating the payment of the debt and saying "no" to new budget cuts.
The significant problem remains the cuts in the government. One of the main fronts of the negotiations between the government and the representatives of the Troika will be the rescue of the three companies that make up the Greek defence industry. The lenders insist on closing and selling them, as they have incurred losses over the past years and have cost the budget 1.5 billion euro. The Greek government, however, insists on applying rescue measures in order to avoid mass layoffs.
The reduction of staff in the public administration is another issue that has been widely discussed but almost nothing has been done in connection with it. Another part of this drama is the 1,349 administrative employees in eight major Greek universities who have to be included in the mobility programme. Today is the deadline for all employees to fill in the electronic platform of the Ministry of Education in order for it to select them in an objective manner. It remains to be seen whether the government will fulfil its threat to remove those employees who have failed to enter their data.
Against this background, the unanimous judgment of GRReporter’s readers in the three language versions, namely that Antonis Samaras has not achieved anything significant for Greece, is not at all surprising. So, 59% of readers of the Greek version strongly believe in this, followed by 51% of readers of the English version and 38% of the Bulgarian version of the website.
The political decision to "crush" Golden Dawn, as he himself defines it in his speeches, through the arrest of the leadership and members of the party is considered as his most successful move. This option has collected the highest number of positive votes, 19%, in the Bulgarian version, followed by 15% in the English version and just 6% in the Greek version of the website.
The Greek readers believe that Antonis Samaras’ most significant achievement is the removal of the Russian gas monopoly Gazprom from the privatization of the Greek gas company DESFA. The same is the opinion of 12% of Bulgarian readers and of just 6% of readers of the English version of GRReporter.
According to 16% of Bulgarian readers, the actions taken by Antonis Samaras were crucial in connection with the first signs that the Greek economy is emerging from the crisis, which is the opinion of 12% and 8% of the readers of the English and Greek versions respectively.
The closure of state broadcaster ERT, which was a very surprising move that put an end to the tripartite ruling coalition in mid-June this year, is considered as a success by 9% of readers of the English version, 7% of the Bulgarian and 4% of the Greek readers.
The lowest is the number of votes in favour of the "statement" that Antonis Samaras is the best Greek Prime Minister. It is the preference of 8% of readers of the Bulgarian, 7% of readers of the English and of just 4% of readers of the Greek versions of GRReporter.
Now we are awaiting your answers in our new poll, Do you think that the Greek authorities have properly approached the case of little Maria?