Prime Minister Antonis Samaras made his trek to the Money Lords of the North, and he didn’t even get a lousy T-shirt.
Yeah, both the Iron Chancellor and the ersatz Socialist told him they wanted Greece in the eurozone, but even that’s more rhetoric than reality — given that Germany’s already planning its Grexit strategy.
Prime Minister Antonis Samaras made his trek to the Money Lords of the North, and he didn’t even get a lousy T-shirt.
Yeah, both the Iron Chancellor and the ersatz Socialist told him they wanted Greece in the eurozone, but even that’s more rhetoric than reality — given that Germany’s already planning its Grexit strategy.
We open with the latest news, Samaras’s Parisian journal, follow up with Friday’s Merkel meet-up, word of some political Franco-German strategizing, Berlin’s preparations for a Grexit, Barack Obama’s Grexit worries, a very strange Greco-German settlement, and Greek cash woes.
We close with the latest developments in the cultural crisis fomented by pitting shell-shocked Greek natives against immigrants, “legal” and otherwise.
First, a video report from Britain’s SkyNews:
Merkollande deals out the tough love
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President François Hollande spelled it out for Samaras today, following the prime ministers successive meetings with leaders of the eurzone’s two most powerful economies.
The cost for staying on the common currency will be unrelenting austerity, with no extensions granted to ease the misery for the Greek people.
From Xinhua:
Both French President Francois Hollande and Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said Saturday that Greece must stay in the eurozone.
They affirmed the position when talking to the press after they held talks on the Greece bailout.
“Greece is in the eurozone and Greece must stay in the eurozone, but it still has to demonstrate the credibility of its program and the willingness of its leaders to go the whole way, while doing it in a way that is bearable for the population,” said the French leader.
“Greece will manage it, will remain in the eurozone,” Samaras said.
Hollande also said Europe must make a decision quickly about Greece’s future once a key report is released next month by the troika of the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund.
More from Radio France Internationale:
“Greece must stay in the eurozone,” French President François Hollande declared after meeting Greek PM Antonis Samaras in Paris on Saturday. But he added that its leaders must show they are ready to go the “whole way” with the tough austerity package that was a condition for European loans.
“Greece is in the eurozone and Greece must stay in the eurozone,” Hollande said at a joint press conference with Samaras at the Elysee palace. “But 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.”
And more from the London Telegraph’s Rachel Cooper:
“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.
He said that both Greece and Europe needed to put the turmoil behind them as quickly as possible, adding: “It’s now been two and a half years. There’s no more time to be lost.”
Addressing Mr Hollande’s concerns directly, 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.”
So where does that leave Greece?
Basically, precisely where it stood before Samaras set out on his pilgrimage to the North.
From Andy Dabilis of Greek Reporter:
After being put on hold by German Chancellor Angela Merkel over his hope Greece could get a two-year delay to administer more reforms and austerity measures demanded by international lenders, Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has been told by French President Francois Hollande to wait for a report on the country’s progress first.
In a meeting in Paris, the French leader – who was elected on an anti-austerity platform – reiterated Merkel’s message: that they first want to see what inspectors from the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB) determine.
That report is due in October, but Samaras’ uneasy coalition government is under the gun to make $14.16 billion in cuts and speed the pace of privatization, but he said the pay cuts, tax hikes and slashed pensions that came with bailouts have worsened the country’s recession and delayed recovery. He did not explicitly raise the idea of a delay with Merkel, however.
With Hollande telling him to be patient, Samaras’ Berlin-Paris swing essentially accomplished nothing and leaves Greece where it was before he went to meet the German and French leaders. Greece is expected next month to receive a $38.8 billion installment, the last in a first series of $152 billion in rescue loans, while a second for $173 billion is in limbo.
Merkel’s Friday message: Stern, conciliatory
Before meeting with Hollande today, Samaras held a Friday sitdown with the German Chancellor, the key player in the eurodrama, given that Germany will have to cough up with the lion’s share of cash for any additional bailout.
Merkel’s message was clear and concise: She’s feels their pain, but expect no mercy.
From George Gilson of Athens News:
German Chancellor Angela Merkel delivered a stern warning to visiting Prime Minister Antonis Samaras after extensive talks about the Greek bailout programme in Berlin.
“We expect Greece to deliver all that has been promised,” Merkel declared. In remarks that were unusually sharp for a joint news conference, she stressed that Berlin has heard words in the past but now expects deeds.
The tough talk contrasted sharply with the head of state honours and diplomatic smiles with which Samaras was received on his first official visit, complete with red carpet and band.
More from the London Telegraph’s Louise Armitstead:
After talks with prime minister Antonis Samaras in Berlin, the German Chancellor said she was “deeply convinced” that the new Greek government was “doing everything to solve the problems.” Mr Samaras insisted that Greece “wants time not money.” But Ms Merkel refused to even address Greece’s plea, signalling a continuation of the deadlock at the heart of the debt crisis.
The sense of vacuum rather than solution was compounded by revelations that the European Central Bank (ECB) is planning to delay the progress of its bond buying programme. Sources at the central bank told reporters that there would be no decisions on the high-anticipated strategy, which has helped fuel the recent stockmarket rally, until Germany had approved the plan to boost the European Stability Mechanism (ESM).
Investors and economists had hoped ECB president Mario Draghi would use a press conference on September 6 to announce a radical intervention plan. But the German court ruling on the legitimacy of the ESM is not due until September 12. Mr Draghi first hinted at a bond purchasing scheme on August 2, yet the timetable is now sliding towards the next deadline for a Greek default.
Robert Halver, at Baader Bank in Frankfurt, told reporters: “We need clear decisions. There is a possibility that Greece will leave the euro zone in October. Preparations for a Greece exit, and a subsequent domino effect are running. Markets need to know what the face of the new euro zone and policy will be.”
And a video report from Al Jazeera
Samaras polishes the turd
That’s a wonderful old American political term, referring to the art of putting the best possible spin on a truly ugly reality.
From Honor Mahony of EUobserver:
Greek leader Antonis Samaras has said talks on Friday with Angela Merkel signalled the start of new relations between Athens and Berlin but the German chancellor remained characteristically cautious.
“My visit today marks the start of new relations between our two countries. This is a new step for a new beginning,” said Samaras, following talks with Merkel on how Greece is proceeding with the structural reforms, privatisation and budget cutting that is being demanded of it in return for bailout money.
The centre-right leader, currently seeking to prove to eurozone leaders that Greece has earned the right to an extension in the amount of time needed to carry out reforms, said that Athens has two deficits to reduce – a budget deficit and a credibility deficit.
“We are a proud people and we do not like living off borrowed money. We have resources and we will try to make use of them.”
Here’s an excerpt from Merkel’s remarks via a Google translation from the Greek government website:
I know that asking Greece, particularly by citizens of Greece, really suffer badly. Five years into this desert to which. . .undoubtedly need special support from all of us.
I must say that in this financial crisis, I said and I repeat is the aim of the federal government to keep Greece in the eurozone. I would also like to stay and I mean that, despite the problems that exist. That is, if you want, why they move, like moving.
We know that the euro is more than one currency. It’s an idea. Idea of an integrated Europe, the idea of a unified Europe. `For this reason, we need to move all in one direction.
Within this context, we discussed all the steps that should be done. We discussed the steps together, but explained that in each step and expect a certain result. And I want to reiterate very clearly what it is that we expect. The evrokrisi has to do with the fact that we have lost one to the other, first, the credibility and secondly, the belief that we are moving in the same direction. Therefore, we must regain the trust between you and us. What does this mean? Whatever you need to know exactly what we intend to do. That ‘what we expect from Greece to implement all those which we have been promised. The words have been heard before. Now we need to follow the action. I hope the new government to move in this direction.
On the other hand, when we say that “fulfill obligations” means that Greece can expect from Germany that we will not reach any conclusions without the facts we have at our fingertips. And to really have the information at our fingertips, I mean and we mean all of us, to have the position and the report of the troika. That `This will help each other, trying to help and lend a helping hand to each other. And today we agreed that our bilateral relations and cooperation will continue.
The dynamic duo in permanent talks on Greece
Another move that’s not so surprising, given the accelerating pace of the crisis and the weakening of the two dominant economies.
From Capital.gr:
France and Germany are in “permanent” consultation on Greece to defend European interests, Les Echos cited French European Affairs Minister Bernard Cazeneuve as saying in an interview scheduled to appear in tomorrow’s newspaper, Bloomberg informs.
He was responding to a question about whether German Chancellor Angela Merkel may toughen her position toward Greece as she faces elections next year, according to Les Echos.
Dutch money minister urged the hard line
In advance of the meetings, the Dutch finance minister gave his endorsement to the tough love strategy.
From Capital.gr:
Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees De Jager urged Germany to maintain its tough stance on aid to Greece in an interview. . .published on Friday, when Greece’s prime minister is due to hold talks in Berlin with Chancellor Angela Merkel.
“I say to the German government that it is best for it to stick with its strict position (towards Athens),” De Jager told the Financial Times Deutschland newspaper in excerpts of the interview released on Thursday evening.
“Delaying correct measures helps nobody, not even the Greeks,” said the minister, whose country is a staunch ally of Germany in insisting that euro zone member states implement tough austerity measures to overcome the debt crisis.
Germany prepares for the Grexit
According to the German edition of Financial Times, the Ministry of Finance preparations are being worked out by a team of technocrats drawn from all levels of the ministry.
Meeting on a regular basis, they’re formulating a strategy.
Gee, are we shocked, shocked.
From Greek Reporter’s A. Papapostolou:
Germany’s preparations for a possible Greek exit from the Eurozone are more intense than previously known, the German daily Financial Times Deutschland reported Friday, citing sources in the finance ministry.
According to the report, the finance ministry has created a special working group under the leadership of state secretary Thomas Steffen. The group is made up of about ten people across all levels of hierarchy in the ministry and meets on a regular basis, the FTD said.
Steffen, who is a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU party, is in close contact with the chancellery on the issue, the paper added.
“The colleagues are calculating the financial consequences and deliberating on how a domino effect in other Euro countries can be prevented,” the paper cited ministry sources as saying.
>snip<
“There is a task force that is dealing primarily with the debt crisis. In this context, Mr. Steffen is accountable to the [finance] minister,” a spokesperson of the ministry told the paper. The spokesperson added that the government is preparing for all scenarios, including unlikely ones.
Obamans don’t like the Grexit
And if it does happen, they want it postponed until after the election.
Yeah, that’s an easy one to grasp. A Grexit would be a delight to Mitt Romney, who could then tout his expertise in things financial.
And lest we forget, Bain Capital is a vulture capital outfit, specializing in the restructuring of failed business.
From Oliver Wright of The Independent:
The Obama administration will pressure European governments not to let Greece fall out of the eurozone before November’s Presidential elections, British Government sources have suggested.
Representatives from the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Commission are due to arrive in Athens next month to assess Greece’s reform efforts.
They are expected to report in time for an 8 October meeting of eurozone finance ministers which will decide on whether to disburse Greece’s next €31bn aid tranche, promised under the terms of the bailout for the country.
American officials are understood to be worried that if they decide Greece has not done enough to meet its deficit targets and withhold the money, it would automatically trigger Greece’s exit from the eurozone weeks before the Presidential election on 6 November.
A case of very curious timing
Curious, isn’t it, how the Greek government decided to settle with a bribe-dispensing German industrial giant right before Samaras headed off to Berlin.
One might even suspect that it was an act of sacrifice, an austerian gesture aimed at appeasing a German prime minister with a strong base of support in Bavaria, home of Siemens.
From Athens News:
The government has signed an agreement with Siemens under which the German industrial giant will pay 330m euro in cash and kind following the furore over a high-profile and massive kickbacks and bribery scandal involving the company, its subsidiary in Greece and the multinational’s numerous contracts with the state and public sector companies over two decades.
Under the agreement, signed by Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras, Siemens will write off 80m euros owed by the state and various public entities, including hospitals.
It will also provide 90m euros by the German multinational over a period of five years to fund public sector agencies and initiatives aimed at combating corruption, fraud and money laundering; university and scientific research programmes; 100 scholarships annually for postgraduate studies in the sectors of energy, health, industry, infrastructure and urban development through the State Scholarships Foundation (IKY); and the purchase of medical equipment in state hospitals, with a particular emphasis on paediatric hospitals.
Siemens will also invest, in 2012, 100m euros in its Siemens Hellas subsidiary, which employs more 600 employees, to ensure its continuing presence in the country.Along those lines, Siemens agreed to build a new production facility in the country, budgeted at more than 60m euros.
Greece’s cash will run dry in October
Strangely enough, that’s also when the next installment of bailout cash is due.
From ANSAmed:
Greek State cash reserves will last until the middle of October, daily Kathimerini reports quoting the Finance Ministry’s latest projections. This is apparently why Prime Minister Antonis Samaras admitted in a recent interview that if the next bailout installment of 31.5 billion euros is not forthcoming, the country will find itself facing a liquidity problem.
The troika’s report, on which the disbursement mainly hinges, is expected by early October. This means that the country’s ability to cover domestic and foreign financial liabilities depends on the issuance of treasury bills.
In order to be able to continue paying salaries and pensions until the installment is disbursed, the government is putting a series of other payments due on hold, exacerbating the lack of liquidity in the market and hampering the operation of public departments.
Immigrants stage protest in Syntagma Square
Confronted by the rising xenophobia invariably accompanying economic crises, Greece’s much-attacked [rhetorically and physically] immigrant community turned out by the thousands in Syntagama Square in Athens, calling for an end to violence and police roundups.
From A. Papapostolou of Greek Reporter:
Thousands of immigrants marched in Athens on Friday to protest police sweeps and a rash of racist attacks in Greece as the country struggles to pull itself out of a huge debt crisis.
Greece is a major gateway for mostly Asian and African migrants trying to enter the European Union. They face increased hostility as the country struggles through its deepest post-Second World War recession and record unemployment, propelling the ultranationalist Golden Dawn party to parliament for the first time since the fall of a military junta in 1974.
About 5,000 protesters marched to parliament holding banners reading “No Islamophobia” and “Neo Nazis out!” in one of the biggest anti-racism marches in Athens in recent years.
Tensions between immigrants and Greeks have risen sharply in recent months and the demonstration was held a day after police detained hundreds of undocumented immigrants in Corinth as part of a nationwide sweep and held them in a former army camp.
Here’s a video report on the protest from Iran’s PressTV:
State to crack down on Golden Dawn assault squads
The neoNazi Golden Dawn party, which captured seats in the national legislature during the last parliamentary election, has tzaken the lead in mobilizing anti-immigrant sentiment.
Most notoriously, party members have formed action squads targeting immigrants with violence, committing arson and even murder.
Now the government has finally decided to act.
From Andy Dabilis of Greek Reporter:
Greek Public Order Minister Nikos Dendias, exasperated at violent attacks against police by the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party, and growing assaults against immigrants, said he’s going to crack down on the group. Golden Dawn supporters, clad in the party’s black shirt with the Swastika-like ancient Greek meander symbol, battled with police outside a military camp in Corinth where immigrants were being taken to be detained.
“Raid brigades across the country, who trade upon national symbols, will not be tolerated. Any such phenomenon will be crushed,” Dendias said. Greek authorities have been conducting a sweep called Xenios Zeus and rounded up 11,000 immigrants, looking for those in the country unlawfully. Golden Dawn and municipal authorities where detention centers are being established are objecting to the presence of the immigrants.
Keep Talking Greece reports on resistance from the city government and businesses in Corinth to housing the rounded-up immigrants in the army base:
In Corinth, the mayor and the city council consider to stop the garbage collection as “retaliation”. In the morning they cut the water supply to the camp, also to the soldiers part. Apparently a prosecutor is investigating.
The Trade Association of the city also opposed the immigrants trasnfer and the Chairman of Corinth Chamber of Commerce said that “it was a mistake to locate immigrants into an army camp”.
Chrysi Avgi issued also a statement, describing as a “criminal action” to convert facilities of the Greek Army into “tourism centres for illegal immigrants”.
And a video on the violence in Corinth from Newsit.gr via Keep Talking Greece:
Government toughens law on citizenship
At the same time the government announces a crackdown on anti-immigrant violence, it announces a set of new regulations that make it harder for immigrants to gain citizenship.
So while renouncing violence, the government still finds a way to pander to its conservative base.
Sounds just like the GOP.
From Ekathemerini:
The original 2010 law allows second-generation immigrants whose parents have been living in Greece legally for at least five years to apply for citizenship. According to the proposed revision, this period of time would be extended to eight or 10 years.
Another reform in the works would grant citizenship to immigrants who have graduated from a Greek secondary school and secured a place at a state university or college. “When a young person has demonstrated an interest in our language, culture and in Greek education, we are obliged to acknowledge this,” Alternate Interior Minister Haralambos Athanassiou told Kathimerini.
On the other hand, the number of years that second-generation immigrants must study at a Greek school to secure citizenship will increase to nine years, from the current six, according to the revised law.
Also, migrants aged over 18 residing legally in Greece will have to wait 10 years before acquiring citizenship compared to the current seven years.
According to ministry statistics, 54,968 immigrants were granted citizenship between 2000 and 2011. But the majority — 43,060 — were ethnic Greeks from Albania.
Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has called several times for the repeal of the 2010 citizenship law, calling it a magnet for undocumented migrants.
Yep, sounds exactly like the GOP.
