Yet another post about this…

You must be so bored by it by now. The never ending saga of Greece’s political and economic situation is well… never ending. For me it has reached this critical limit when I can’t but laugh at the situation!

For the new bailout which is yet to be decided, the current government (the socialists) made some announcements about further cuts in salaries, subsidizes, increasing taxes etc. I understand that there is nothing else to be done to repay the debt. I can’t believe that the Prime Minister (PM) is happy to make these announcements. However, other measures to be taken, like privatisation of governmental companies and assets are not generally talked about. People once again saw their income diminished.


General strikes and marches are a norm these days. Similarly to what was happening in Spain, people are permanently in the main Athens square called Sintagma (= Constitution), in front of the House of Parliament. Yesterday, it was decided by most Unions to be a general strike day. Most general strikes do happen on Wednesday. It’s mid week and probably most people prefer not to work (but that’s my cynicism talking).

The demonstrations are crowded but at the time peaceful. However, the PM is greeted by the marching people with eggs and other seasonal vegetables thrown at his car on his way to meet the President. The situation escalates and the known ‘Anonymous’ people join the marches. I’m referring to the group of people with hoods, covered faces, sticks and Molotov bombs, who are in war with the Police. These ‘Anonymous’ people after suspiciously being inactive for the last days were ignoring the people staying in the Syntagma square. However, yesterday they tried and managed to destroy the peaceful demonstrations.

People outside the House of Parliament

What happened next can be described as simply amazing.

The PM is in contact with the leader of the opposition (the conservatives) to form a governmental coalition that will include financial experts outside political parties to solve the problems. The opposition leader states that he will concur only if the current PM is not the leader of that coalition! Surprisingly enough the PM agrees and yesterday afternoon the Greek PM resigns to the President!

George Papandreou - the Greek Prime Minister

It’s not certain what happens next. The leader of the opposition makes a statement about a personal victory over the socialists and how it’s proven that they can’t govern the country properly. The way they handle the situation I personally believe is arrogant and improper. The current government becomes furious on the opposition reaction and the Greek PM un-resigns to the President (I know that’s not a proper word, but I can’t explain it)! He withdraws his resignation and states that such a coalition can never happen, only mere hours after his resignation. He now states that he'll change the ministers, reevaluate the situation and maybe create two ministries of financial affairs with some no MP members...

This must be a world’s first!

The supporters of the opposition state that the Greek PM is simply dangerous and even mentally unstable. The supporters of the government state that the conservatives are immature and greedy, only trying to personally gain from the bad situation! The rest of the political parties declared that a coalition government is unconstitutional (which I think is true) and they would never support it, until a referendum or elections are organised.

The outcome of course of this whole fiasco is that nothing’s being done and the situation daily worsens. For the whole day yesterday almost the whole country was on strike. I can’t think of any scenario that this helps the country pay back its debt.