This is considered the most crucial weekend for the country’s future as the bond swap deal known as the Private Sector Involvement (PSI) and negotiations with the so called Troika (EU, ECB, IMF) for the new rescue contract are expected to be completed. The political leaders of the three parties supporting Prime-minister Lucas Papademos government will be called to ratify the two agreements. Mr. Papademos will chair a meeting attended by the three political leaders, George Papandreou of PASOK, Antonis Samaras of ND and George Karatzaferis of LAOS. The meeting is most likely to be held on Saturday without ruling out the possibility to be held on Friday afternoon if negotiations are completed. Regardless of tight timetables all pending issues have to be settled till Sunday to present the final proposals at the Eurogroup meeting on Monday.
In reference to the bond swap deal and negotiations for the new bail out package deputy premier and Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos blamed SYRIZA party and forces within the coalition government of “shrewdly trying to hide behind political parties and individuals”. In response to a question on the strengthening of the banking system by the president of SYRIZA party Parliamentary Group Alexis Tsipras, Mr. Venizelos spoke of tragic dilemmas to which the leaders of the political parties supporting the government would be called to respond, adding that “ this policy was painful but non implementation of this policy would be more painful.” SYRIZA president A. Tsipras spoke of moral instigators and perpetrators that brought the country to this situation and urged the government to refuse the new bail out package that would be used for the payment of debts and not the real economy.
Socialist PASOK party leader George Papandreou, addressing his party’s Parliamentary Group, underlined the need for PASOK unity ahead of procedures highly significant for both the party itself and the country.
Mr. Papandreou called PASOK deputies to vote in favour of the bond swap deal, known as PSI and the new rescue loan, extolling the efforts of Finance Minister E. Venizelos for successful outcome of relevant negotiations.
In the meantime, ND party spokesman Yiannis Mihelakis on behalf of his party launched a strong attack against the former prime-minister George Papandreou blaming him for “destroying the country” the last two years.
Social partners sent a letter to the Prime-minister, the leaders of political parties represented in the Parliament and EU representatives in which they underline the need for maintenance of minimum wages and the so called 13th and 14th salaries in the private sector. Their counterproposal is freezing of salary rises in July provided by the National Collective Labour Contract.
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