A third meeting this week between Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, the New Democracy Conservative leader, and his reluctant partners, PASOK Socialist chief Evangelos Venizelos and Democratic Left (DIMAR) head Fotis Kouvelis, failed to reach agreement late on June 20 on how to resume public broadcasts after the closure of the national TV-radio station ERT by the government.
Kouvelis said his proposal for a reformed broadcaster was rejected by Samaras, who wants a transitional broadcaster run by only a few staff that will air a few ready-made programs, raising the stakes that the talks had broken down.
Venizelos said the fate of the government was in jeopardy because Kouvelis had dug in his heels and was threatening to withdraw from the government ministers he had supported.
Venizelos said he wants the government to remain intact and said, “We ask for DIMAR to participate,” an indication he was willing to go along with Samaras, although he added, “PASOK is not afraid of elections,” even though his party is polling about 5 percent.
Samaras, in a TV address at 12:30 a.m. on June 21, told Greeks that he was willing to bring back 2,000 of the 2,656 workers fired at ERT to meet a court order to restore the signal for now, but only on three-month contracts before the new entity, NERIT, gets up and running with a staff of 1000-1200.
That appeared to appease Venizelos, who was praised by Samaras for apparently conceding to the compromise, but the Premier said he still wants Kouvelis to come on board.
Kouvelis said he would meet with his party leaders on the morning of June 21 to decide whether he would walk from the government, although that would still leave Samaras in control of the Parliament if he keeps PASOK’s votes.
New Democracy has 125 seats and PASOK 28, for a total of 153, just barely enough to have a majority of the 300-member body. Some reports said that Samaras would call for a plenary session of the Parliament and ask for a vote of confidence, indicating he may have gotten Venizelos to go along with his decision to close ERT and meet the court order to restore the signal with only a skeleton staff.
That came as ERT, which was closed down on June 11, remained off the air despite a June 17 ruling by the country’s highest court, the Council of State that its signal shouldn’t have been turned off, although the court also said that Samaras had the right to restructure the operation.
The ambivalent language was interpreted differently by opposing political camps and led the government to ignore the order. It was so confusing that the court reconvened just ahead of the evening talks by the three leaders and said it would likely issue a clarification on June 21. The stalled talks reignited fears that the government could fall and that the ERT crisis could force early elections, although all sides said they were trying feverishly to avoid it.
Venizelos and Kouvelis had been insisting that the government put ERT back on the air and rehire all the 2,656 people who were summarily fired with five minutes notice but relented to a new deal in which limited operations of the national broadcaster – but not referred to as ERT – would operate with a smaller staff until the new entity, NERIT, gets up and running late in the summer with 1000-1200 workers.
The coalition had agreed to go along with demands from international lenders to fire 2,500 public workers this summer and another 15,000 by the end of 2014, but Venizelos and Kouvelis said they shouldn’t have come from ERT. They offered no other solution to reaching the goal of reducing the workforce.
Fired ERT employees protested outside the central Athens court as judges met to reach their final decision. The Geneva, Switzerland-based European Broadcasting Union has backed ongoing broadcasts by ERT employees that are being streamed online.
EBU Director General Ingrid Deltenre, speaking at the European Parliament, sharply criticized Samaras’ actions. “The abrupt decision to close down ERT … actually isn’t going to save the country any money,” she said. “ERT was funded from the license fee by citizens. ERT was generating a small surplus. The channel was not bankrupt.”
Earlier in the day, lawmakers from the major opposition party Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA,) the Communist Party (KKE) and Independent Greeks left the Parliament to protest the government’s refusal not to discuss an amendment submitted by KKE which sought to overturn the closing of ERT.
Alternate Environment Minister Stavros Kalafatis said that the amendment couldn’t be accepted because it would entail an extra burden on the state budget – which would be in violation of the Greek Constitution.
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