Samaras Cuts Deep, But Says No More

As previous governments have when they imposed austerity measures they said were the last but did it again, Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said that while more deep pay cuts, tax hikes and slashed pensions are coming for Greeks, they would not be repeated.
Samaras, apparently trying to take the sting out of $14.16 billion in cuts demanded by international lenders, which will strike hardest again at Greece’s most vulnerable sector – workers, pensioners and the poor – promised they would face no more. “This is the last package of spending cuts. The Greek economy can take no more,” he told a meeting of his New Democracy Conservative party officials.
Before the critical June 17 elections that he barely won over the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA,) which was opposed to the austerity measures that came with bailout packages from the Troika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB,) Samaras said he would not lower the hammer again, but changed his mind after he won. He said he had no choice if Greece wanted to keep rescue monies coming.
The country next month is due to get a $38.8 billion loan installment, the last in a first $152 billion bailout that came with attached austerity, and the Troika was withholding a second, for $173 billion, until Samaras’ uneasy coalition government administered more cuts and reforms.
Samaras had to convince his partners and rivals, the PASOK Socialists of Evangelos Venizelos and the tiny Democratic Left of Fotis Kouvelis, to abandon their pre-campaign pledges not to administer more austerity too, although they were reportedly still resisting some measures.
Venizelos and Kouvelis said at first they would not go along with more pay and pension cuts – these will be the fourth for the elderly since Greece had to ask for bailouts two years ago . They face the prospect some of their MP’s might not back the package in Parliament.
Samaras’ promise will sound familiar to Greeks, as previous governments have offered – and broken – similar pledges during more than two-and-a-half years of harsh austerity measures designed to curtail huge budget deficits. “Many of these cutbacks are difficult, painful,” Samaras said. “But they are also inevitable. For without them the country would return to zero credibility and effectively leave the euro … which would … destroy the country.”
A BLUE CHRISTMAS
The newspaper Kathimerini reported that the government would eliminate already-cut bonuses for Easter, Christmas and the summer – including for pensioners – a move that could close more businesses as consumption has fallen markedly because of previous pay cuts, tax hikes and slashed pensions. There will also be a fourth round of pension cuts for those receiving more than $1,000 a month, with slashes ranging from 2-20 percent, which the government hopes will save $5.6 billion alone.
The proposed package also includes $1.63 billion in more cuts in health care, $627.4 million in defense, and also foresees $1.63 billion in cuts to healthcare,  some $627.5 million in defense and $941 million in cutbacks to local authority subsidies.
Kathimerini reported that objections were raised during a meeting between party officials night to proposed cuts to social welfare benefits and benefits for the disabled. There will finally be cuts up to 12 percent to the so-called “special salaries” of certain categories of civil servants such as judges, diplomats, academics, priests and military officers, all of who had largely escaped sacrifice while workers were getting their pay cut 30 percent. But police officers and others deemed to have high-security jobs will not have salary cuts.
The government also plans to cut the public workforce by 35-40,000 workers by 2014, either through early retirement or firing those who fail to pass evaluations, although the government has backed off plans to lay them off directly. Another 110,000 are to leave the service by 2015 either through retirement or the termination of their contracts, Kathimerini reported.
Kouvelis insisted that he strongly opposes across-the-board income cuts. His party also disagrees with reductions in local authority funding and in farmers’ pensions, as well as with the proposals to suspend thousands of civil servants – who are guaranteed jobs for life – on reduced pay ahead of retirement. The vote is expected to trigger protests, as labor unions and anti-austerity parties virulently oppose further austerity. Previous demonstrations descended into riots that saw extensive vandalism and destruction of property in central Athens.
(Sources: Kathimerini, Reuters, AP)