A country on tenterhooks

Can tiny Greece — whose gross domestic product represents a minute fraction of Europe’s GDP — prompt an “alert” in Europe and threaten the global interest? Judging by the barrage of declarations from European leaders and the massive influx of foreign journalists who have arrived to cover today’s and tomorrow’s votes in parliament, yes it can. [On 29 June MPs will vote on a bill setting out spending targets designed to save 28.4 billion euros between 2012 and 2015 and the creation of an agency to privatise 50 billion euros of state assets. The second vote on 30 June will focus on a bill to enable the implementation of specific budgetary and privatisation measures].

For Greece and the eurozone, the uncertainty of recent weeks is set to be prolonged for another 48 hours. Although a scenario in which MPs opt to reject the austerity plan appears increasingly unlikely, nothing can be ruled out.

For the first time since the restoration of democratic rule in this country [in July 1974], we have reached our limit. And that is reflected by the pressure weighing on MPs who will have to decide on the austerity plan.

There is no denying that this is an unpredictable crisis for the government. Even if the austerity plan is approved (and given the reticence of members of the ruling socialist party, if it is, it will be thanks to votes from the opposition), the stability of the government will be in jeopardy.

And this is something that the representatives of PASOK [the ruling socialist party which has a majority of 155 seats out of 300] know very well. On the one hand, they are under pressure from voters outraged by the drastic measures of the austerity plan, on the other they also have a duty to support the government.

It is a fact that has also been acknowledged by government headquarters, which sanctioned the campaign of persuasion undertaken by the new Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos [to win over a parliamentary majority with promises of social dialogue].

At the same time, the Greek problem has also become a major headache for European institutions, which are now focusing all their attention on Syntagma Square [the site of the main anti-austerity protest]. And in this context, the declarations by Van Rompuy, Barroso, Olli Rehn and Wolfgang Schäuble to the effect that our country "has no alternative" and that "there is no plan B,” which may have involved a certain element of blackmail, have also contributed to the uncertainty.

On the one hand, we have heard outright denials from officials who insist “there is no plan B" for Greece. On the other, we have heard talk of initiatives that have been proposed in France and Germany, although we have no idea of their exact details and no way of knowing how the markets will respond to them.

This is the climate in which MPs have been invited to simply say “yes” or “no” in the certain knowledge that this will be only the first of many challenges to come.

Last minute: the Greek Parliament adopted the austerity plan by 155 votes against 138.

Comment

Brussels is not joking

"The European Union, which is not joking, has plunged Greece into a dilemma. Either it adopts the new austerity plan, or it will have to face bankruptcy — a very dangerous situation," writes To Ethnos.

This is an important moment and a crucial vote, writes the daily, which warns that "the continuing to build-up of tension in the streets shows that the Greek people are determined to rise up against the unjust measures of the second austerity plan."