Μerkel Coming to Athens to Meet Samaras

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, an object of scorn to Greeks angry that she’s insisting on more austerity measures while her country foots much of the bill for bailouts to save the Greek economy, will visit Athens on Oct. 9 to meet Prime Minister Antonis Samaras.
Merkel’s trip comes as Samaras’ uneasy coalition government is locked in talks with international lenders who want another $17.45 billion in spending cuts and tax hikes and are holding back more loan installments until it does.
It will be the first time Merkel has come to Greece since the financial crisis broke out three years ago. Since then, she has both championed continued aid to Greece and demanded the government implement big pay cuts, tax hikes and slashed pensions, creating rising tension between the two countries and even leading some Greek politicians to demand that Germany pay reparations for damages and Nazi atrocities during World War II.
Merkel, the lead political player in fighting the economic contagion that started in Greece and has since spread to Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Cyprus, is coming as a return visit after Samaras went to Berlin in August to plead Greece’s case, although he stopped short of asking her or French President Francois Hollande for more time to impose reforms.
Greece is surviving on a first series of $152 billion in rescue loans from the Troika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB) although a last installment of $38.8 billion is on hold until the government pushes the spending cut and tax hike program through Parliament, but only after the Troika agrees to all the terms.
A second bailout of $172 billion is also on hold and Samaras told a German business newspaper that unless more aid monies are released that Greece will go broke by the end of November, be unable to pay workers, pensioners or its bill, likely be forced out of the Eurozone and into chaos and complete collapse.
“We want to help Greece stabilize within the Eurozone,” Steffen Seibert, Merkel’s chief spokesman, told reporters in Berlin, saying that is the main message Germany can give to Greece. “We do this by contributing massively to the rescue programs Greece I and Greece II.”
The German leader is likely to face strong protests from Greeks and labor unions who are planning more strikes and protests against austerity and who view her as the architect of the plan that has pushed many Greeks to the edge of poverty and ruin.  The austerity measures have largely backfired, put nearly two million people out of work, closed 68,000 businesses and is shrinking the economy by 7 percent, all without making much of a dent in the country’s $380 billion deficit or 9.3 percent deficit as beleaguered Greeks have largely stopped spending.
Greece’s ability to stabilize and stay in the euro “will only be possible if Greece makes great efforts of its own,” Seibert said. “We see that under the Samaras government there’s a strengthened reform effort and we want to support that.” The full program for the trip has yet to be completed, he said, describing the visit as “normal.”
Merkel has given some hints that she might be willing to be more lenient on the terms for Greece, but keeps insisting the government must still meet fiscal targets and adhere to austerity. She told Samaras in Berlin that Germany will stand behind his government as it struggles to overhaul the economy.
“I want Greece to stay in the Eurozone and that’s what I’m working for,” Merkel said on Aug. 24, adding that she is “deeply convinced” he will make every effort to solve Greece’s problems. The goal of austerity measures is to help Greece reach “the light at the end of the tunnel.”