The EU’s decision to adopt a second rescue plan for Greece, which will also have to slow down the spread of the crisis through the rest of Europe, today raised different reactions from the Greek political leadership, with socialists and right wing exponents backing the agreement and communists against it.
Reporting today to the cabinet, socialist premier Giorgio Papandreou stated that ”our country achieved historical decisions and Europe made a huge step forward. Greece has been freed of the nightmare of bankruptcy and the foundations have been set for future conditions of security. The debt problem has become sustainable and liquidity is fully guaranteed for Greek banks.
Greek Finance minister Evangelos Venizelos instead stated that the second international rescue plan for Greece represents ”a big help” for the Greek economy and guarantees ”a shield” for the Greek banking system. ”We are looking at a new reality after yesterday’s decisions by the European summit. In effects a new situation has been created for many years to come and the Greek citizen must know this”. In his opinion ”with the decision by the Summit we put a lid to the barrel of public debt and we set up a shield for the banks. Greece’s needs have been guaranteed up to 2020”. Venizelos concluded that ”The Greek banking system is the safest in Europe and the Greek people must feel safe because the new agreement to support Greece stabilised the banking system and guarantees its liquidity”.
Antonis Samaras, the leader of Nea Dimocratia, the main opposition party, called the agreement ”a positive step”, but added that ”this decision is not enough, it has some gaps and generates new problems”. ”In piu’ – Samaras concluded – the European decision ”comprises admission that the policy of the Memorandum and that of the Medium Term Economic Programme has totally failed”. Also positive was the comment of Dora Bacoyiannis, leader of the Democratic Alliance, a small party she set up. She called the decisions taken by Brussels ”a major breath of oxygen” and added that the results of the summit ”create a stable context for the Greek economy. Now the country must not lose a single day”, and exhorted the government to ”give up the policy followed during this last year”.
Another pleased by the decisions taken in Brussels was Constantinos Michalos, president of the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Ebea), who claimed that ”the shared decision which the European leaders finally took during yesterday’s summit represents a positive event. As the Greek government says, after the repeated failures and the catastrophic choices, now it has the chance to amend some mistakes made during 22 months by changing policy. The new assistance agreement for Greece must work as a shield to push on major reforms so that the next few tough years ahead will not be wasted. Maybe this truly is the last chance our country has to change path”. Speaking of the agreement, Giorgos Karatzaferis, leader of Laos, the right wing party, stated that ”this is a soft failure” and – after having reasserted the proposal to cooperate with Pasok, the socialist party now in power, and Nea Dimocratia (centre-right, with the opposition) – he added that ”if even with these conditions we cannot manage to stay on our feet, then we will deserve all our troubles”.
Who expressed pessimism about the agreement reached in Brussels was instead Aleca Papariga, the general secretary of the Communist party, who stated that ”the agreement will be brief because the crisis in Italy and Spain, which could also spread to other countries, will cancel this compromise reached between the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the European Union”.
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