Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, the New Democracy Conservative leader, met on Aug. 29 with the partners in his uneasy coalition but was unable to convince them how to make $14.16 billion in cuts for 2013-2014 demanded by international lenders to keep rescue loans coming.
PASOK Socialist leader Evangelos Venizelos and Democratic Left leader Fotis Kouvelis were reportedly balking at how deep the cuts should be on workers, pensioners and the poor who have been hammered for two years with pay cuts, tax hikes and slashed pensions, and over Samaras’ plan to lay off 45,000 state workers and then fire them.
Samaras is anxious to get a final agreement before officials return from the Troika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB,) who are withholding a second bailout, of $173 billion, until the government makes the cuts and administers more austerity measures.
The newspaper Kathimerini reported that the meeting did not yield a consensus, sending Samaras back to the drawing board to work out more changes. Finance Minister Yiannis Stournaras said only that the “basic scenario” had been set but acknowledged more talks would be needed, particularly on what he called issues of “minor significance,” such as more wage cuts in “special salary” categories, such as the military, judges and priests.
Venizelos, who as finance minister in a previous New Democracy-PASOK government doubled income and property taxes and taxed the poor for the first time, said he wasn’t satisfied yet and that he wants to protect the classes his taxes punished. “There will be more cuts and sacrifices but they will be fair,” he said. Kouvelis said was opposed to more horizontal cuts. No mention was made of going after tax evaders who owe the country $70 billion, a bill that grows at the rate of about $12 billion a year.
With Troika envoys set to return to Athens next week, the biggest objections remain over the layoff scheme as well as cutting the salaries of protected professions, with Samaras facing opposition even from some of his ministers, particularly Public Order Minister Nikos Dendias and Defense Minister Panos Panagiotopoulos.
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