Via the FT:
The leader of the rightwing Laos party, junior partner in the Greek coalition government, has appealed to the European Union to ease the terms of the country’s second €130bn bail-out, or risk triggering a “social explosion”..
Mr Karatzaferis’s warning raises doubts about whether he will sign up to the deal, although EU negotiators insist that all the main political parties in Athens must do so – in writing – before the next phase of the Greek rescue can be finalised.
While Laos (People’s party) has only 16 seats in the Greek parliament, its anti-European line is echoed by lawmakers in Pasok, the socialist party that lost power in November but is now part of the three-party coalition headed by Lucas Papademos, Greece’s technocrat prime minister. Antonis Samaras, the conservative leader, has also warned that Greece cannot take more austerity.
Mr Karatzaferis said in a letter to José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, and all the party leaders in the European Parliament that the next round of reforms would cause economic collapse and social unrest “of a kind that Europe has not seen for decades”.
Via Ekathimerini:
About 160,000 jobs will be lost this year in the commerce sector, according to the National Confederation of Greek Commerce (ESEE) as the constant decline in disposable income has led to a sharp drop in turnover and a steep rise in the number of enterprises shutting down.
The jobs to be lost concern 60,000 employers and 100,000 employees in the sector, ESEE expects. Given the data for a 6.2 percent fall in household consumption in 2011 and the Eurostat forecast for a further decline by 4.3 percent this year, ESEE warns that soon Greece will be in a condition of absolute poverty.
With 60,000 enterprises having shut down since the start of the crisis to date, their number is set to double by the end of this year, ESEE estimates.
Amazing how a word can have completely different meaning merely based on the geographic location of where it is used:
"the conservative leader ... has also warned that Greece cannot take more austerity."
I'm always skeptical when I read about supposedly "conservative" politicians in Europe, and this blog post highlights why.
It CAN take more socialism, though?
Generally speaking, in Europe or elsewhere:
If the status quo continues to become more and more socialist, and socialists toil to preserve that status quo, at what point are they all rightly referred to as conservative?
By my watch, that time is now.
CAPTCHA:
"Total shamble"
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseFor better or for worse, that simply is not what "conservative" means in the American context, which is why "conservatives" want to roll back the welfare state while liberals want to keep it as is.
I remember getting a good chuckle when some media outlet or other in 1989 repeatedly referred to "conservative Communists".
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWell, so is Greece now a cheap tourism/outsourcing destination? Seems like it oughtta be if everyone's so poor.
If not, why not?
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuseeloris,
That's very true. But when the "right-wing" Laos party's position is mirrored by the socialist party I see a very narrow political spectrum.
The problem seems to be they all agree on all the wrong things. Just what the right and left wings in Greek politics disagree on is lost on me.
Is it like a urinating contest between the Bolsheviks and the "right-wing" Mensheviks?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseJust to note that on a site with Jonah, it's probably better not to include quotes without disclaimers to the party (LAOS) that ran as the only party in Europe to combine both communists and fascists as "right wing".
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse