Mutiny Brewing in Papandreou's Party

ATHENS – A day after Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou announced a new wave of pay cuts, tax hikes and slashed pensions to satisfy international lenders in return for an $11 billion loan installment as part of a rescue package to save the country from bankruptcy, several members of Parliament in his ruling PASOK Socialist party said they would resist, raising the possibility the premier might not be able to get approval from the legislative body his party controls.
Papandreou, who has faded into the background while letting Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos take the spotlight, teamed with him in trying to convince PASOK MP’s to back the new Draconian measures even as the city was hamstrung by a wide-spread transport strike by workers angered over the plans.
Papandreou has normally gotten almost unanimous support from his MP’s as he has the power to expel from the party any who disobey his orders. But as anger grew throughout the country over the plans that could see 30,000-100,000 public workers fired, the newspaper Kathimerini reported that “The prospect of the steps being rejected by Parliament becomes a strong possibility.”
A vote on an emergency property tax Venizelos decreed be put into electric bills with the threat those who don’t pay would have their power shut off was due on Sept. 22 but delayed because of the possibility of a rebellion by PASOK MP’s. Papandreou has 154 members in the 300-seat House but if enough balk, that could lead to a defeat for his plans and possibly trigger new elections. That led the Premier to invite them to his office where he tried to persuade them to vote his way.
Sources told Kathimerini said that at least five or six PASOK deputies were not prepared to support the property tax. Papandreou and Venizelos warned the deputies of the consequences of Greece not passing the latest austerity measures and losing the next loan, without which the country will run out of money in mid-October. Greece is getting a $152 billion bailout but has had to cede control of its finances to the lenders of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank.
“There is no other way,” Papandreou reportedly told PASOK lawmakers. “The other path leads to bankruptcy, which will have major consequences for every household. “We know it will be difficult but now is time for the most decisive battle of all.” Venizelos said despite a shrinking economy and rising unemployment caused by the first round of austerity measures that it could get worse if Greece defaulted. “Unfortunately, this is not the crisis,” he said. “This is a great effort that we are making to protect ourselves and avoid the crisis.”