Everyone’s outraged': angry Greeks foresee Grexit and drachma's revival

Greece faces its toughest austerity measures yet, with €5.4bn of budget cuts backed by the leftist government of Alexis Tsipras

The Guardian

n his tiny shop in downtown Athens, Kostis Nakos sits behind a wooden counter hunched over his German calculator. The 71-year-old might have retired had he been able to make ends meets but that is now simply impossible. “All day I’ve been sitting here doing the maths,” he sighs, surrounded by the undergarments and socks he has sold for the past four decades.

“My income tax has just gone up to 29%, my social security payments have gone up 20%, my pension has been cut by 50 euros; they are taxing coffee, fuel, the internet, tavernas, ferries, everything they can, and then there’s Enfia [the country’s much-loathed property levy]. Now that makes me mad. They said they would take that away!”

A mild man in milder times, Nakos finds himself becoming increasingly angry. So, too, do the vast majority of Greeks who walked through his door on Monday. “Everyone’s outraged, they’ve been swearing, insulting the government, calling [prime minister] Alexis Tsipras a liar,” he exclaims after parliament’s decision on Sunday night to pass yet more austerity measures. “And they’re right. Everything he said, everything he promised, was a fairy tale.”

Until the debt-stricken country’s financial collapse, shops like this were the lifeblood of Greece. For small-time merchants, the pain has been especially vivid because, like everyone Nakos knows, he voted for Tsipras and his leftist Syriza party.

Now the man who was swept to power on a platform to eradicate austerity has passed the toughest reforms to date – overhauling the pension system, raising taxes and increasing social security fund contributions as the price of emergency bailout aid.

As MPs voted inside the red-carpeted 300-seat chamber on Sunday, police who had blocked off a large part of the city centre deployed teargas and water cannon against the thousands of anti-austerity demonstrators amassed outside. It was a world away from the day the tieless, anti-austerity leftists first assumed office, tearing down the barricades outside the sandstone parliament building.

The latest measures – worth €5.4bn (£4.3bn) in budget savings – mark a new era. After nine months of wrangling with the international creditors keeping the country afloat, Athens must apply policies that until now had been abstract concepts for a populace who have suffered as unemployment and poverty rates have soared.

For many, their arrival marks a new juncture, a psychological cut-off point whose consequences are yet untold. “For a long time, people had a cushion. There was fat in the system but that has now gone,” says Vassilis Korkidis, who heads the National Confederation of Hellenic Commerce.

One by one, Korkidis rattles off the figures: Greece’s internal debt amounts to €220bn of which €119bn are non-performing loans; its external debt is close to €330bn; about 230,000 enterprises have shut since the start of the crisis including 10,000 this year alone. “Soon people will have to deal with tax declarations and Enfia and, by September, everything will have piled up. An explosion is possible. September is going to be a very decisive month.”

In his yellow Toyota, Giorgos Balabanis, a taxi driver for the past 15 years, puts it another way. His car, he insists, is a university of life. “All sorts” get in and out. “And what I am hearing every day is that until we leave the euro, until we return to the drachma, until we have a currency that is not so strong, things will never be right,” he says. “Remember me because it’s going to happen. There will be an explosion and Grexit and the drachma will come back.”

Sunday’s vote follows a period of relative calm. After the drama that underpinned the country’s third bailout last summer – €250bn has been given to Greece since the EU and International Monetary Fund first saved it from bankruptcy – Europe’s most indebted nation had dropped from the headlines.

It was thought the crisis had subsided, usurped by the drama of Europe’s refugees. But it had not gone away.

In 2016, just as in 2015 and every year for the previous five years, it had coursed like a cancer through Greek life, corroding families, closing businesses, decimating hospitals and every other form of state care, leaving ever more destitute. Denuded of basic supplies, doctors say it is only a matter of time before the health system implodes.

“Learning to cope, living with uncertainty, it’s the new normal,” laments Pandelis Stergiou, a graduate medical student who would, he says, have joined the 300,000 who have migrated abroad if he did not love his country so much.

Increasingly, Greece is a land inhabited by rich and poor. Sights that were once shocking – middle class men and women rifling through the rubbish cans on streets – are now mundane. That worries Stergiou. Just as it worries Korkidis who foresees more companies fleeing, massive tax evasion returning and the black market flourishing as people try to survive.

“It can’t go on for ever,” the student, Stergiou, says. “Greeks are running out of stamina, they are running out of endurance. Who will be able to survive on pensions of €384 a month? Something will have to give.”

Greek PM Tsipras seeks debt relief and end to 'vicious cycle'

9-5-2016

BBC

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has said it is time to end the "vicious cycle" of cuts and to start talks with the eurozone on debt relief.
Controversial new pension and tax reforms were passed by Greece's parliament on Monday.
The measures are needed to unlock further international bailout money, to be discussed at a meeting of eurozone finance ministers on Monday.
But they are unpopular with Greek anti-austerity campaigners and unions.
"We have an important opportunity before us for the country to break this vicious cycle, and enter a virtuous cycle," Mr Tsipras told MPs.
Monday, he said, "is a very important day. After six years, the Eurogroup will meet to discuss debt relief".

Key dates to watch on Greece as bailout rift cracks open

Published: May 9, 2016 10:14 a.m. ET
Market Watch

Greece faces key ECB repayment in July and still needs to unlock bailout funds

By
SARA SJOLIN MARKETS REPORTER

The seemingly never-ending Greek debt crisis returned to the fore on Monday, with the country trying to secure a fresh tranche of bailout money to keep it financially afloat over the summer.

The Greek parliament over the weekend approved an unpopular package of pension reforms and tax hikes that is seen as taking it one step closer to wrap up the long-delayed first review of its €86 billion bailout program agreed last summer. Concluding the review is key to unlocking bailout funds, which are crucial to repay €2.3 billion ($2.6 billion) to the European Central Bank in July. Greece is also due to pay the International Monetary Fund €300 million in June.

Greece hit by general strike over pension and tax change

6-5-2016

BBC

Greeks have begun a three-day general strike in protest at further austerity measures that are being proposed in return for more bailout money.
Shipping, public transport and civil service departments were among sectors hit in a bid to stop the introduction of tax and pension changes.
The sudden 48-hour strike on Friday and Saturday was called in addition to action previously planned for Sunday.

Το γλωσσάριο της κωλοτούμπας – Υποτέλεια

Του Θ Πάγκαλου

Posted on 26/04/2016 by admin2 — 0 Comments
Δυστυχώς, στην πολιτική μας ζωή κάποιος ανεγκέφαλος, πότε από το δεξιό άκρο πότε από τ’ αριστερό, διατυπώνει την αξίωση του μονοπωλίου της «εθνικοφροσύνης». Συχνά οι αιτίες είναι συμμετρικά αντίθετες. Τελευταία, με την ανάπτυξη του ρεύματος του εθνικώς υπερήφανου αντιευρωπαϊκού παραλογισμού (ΕΥΑΠ, προσοχή χωρίς Δ), ακροδεξιοί και ακροαριστεροί συμμετέχουν, χωρίς περίσκεψη και αιδώ, ισότιμα στο κυρίαρχο ρεύμα ιδεολογίας. Οργανώνουν και διαχειρίζονται κοινές αντιευρωπαϊκές και αντικοινοβουλευτικές συγκεντρώσεις, όπως η Άνω και Κάτω πλατεία Συντάγματος, των «αγανακτισμένων». Σε τελευταία ανάλυση ακροαριστεροί και ακροδεξιοί συγκροτούν ενιαία κυβερνητική πλειοψηφία και με απερίγραπτες κωλοτούμπες προσπαθούν να τη διατηρήσουν για να μη χαθεί η εξουσία.

Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey’s Prime Minister, Is Expected to Be Replaced

By TIM ARANGO and CEYLAN YEGINSUMAY 4, 2016


The New York Times

ISTANBUL — The Turkish prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, a close ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will soon leave office, a government official said. His departure is occurring amid a disagreement between the two men over Mr. Erdogan’s drive for more power.

The two leaders met on Wednesday night, according to the Turkish official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a decision that had not been announced publicly. “It’s unlikely that Davutoglu will run for leadership again,” he said.

The threat of Grexit never really went away

Bailing out Greece

Brinkmanship over emergency loans resumes again

The Economist

May 4th 2016 | Online extra


THE tagline of the film “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2”, which was released in March, is “People change. Greeks don’t.” Whether any euro-zone finance ministers have seen the film, let alone detected any resemblance to their ongoing talks with the Greek government over its third bail-out, is unknown. But the renewed bickering about whether Greece is keeping to its end of the bargain, complete with threats of a snap election if its creditors don’t give more ground, has the air of a duff sequel.

For ‘Brexit,’ Like ‘Grexit,’ It’s Not About Economics

Fear of political union is why many in Britain dislike the EU; it’s what keeps the Greeks attached to the euro

The Wall Street Journal

By GREG IP
Updated May 4, 2016 1:50 p.m. ET
9 COMMENTS
Britain’s flirtation with leaving the European Union is as puzzling as Greece’s stubborn desire to stay. After all, Britain’s economy has done quite well inside the bloc while Greece’s has been decimated.

What explains both sentiments is that the European project has always been about more than economics. It also seeks “an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe,” as the Treaty of Rome, its founding charter, declared in 1957.

Ποιοι κατέχουν το ελληνικό χρέος

http://www.marketfair.gr/details.php?id=3376

Σύμφωνα με το γράφημα του BBC η Γερμανία είναι ο βασικότερος πιστωτής με 68,2 δισ. ευρώ. Ακολουθούν Γαλλία, Ιταλία και Ισπανία με 43,8 δισ., 38,4 δισ. και 25 δισ. ευρώ αντίστοιχα.

Το Διεθνές Νομισματικό Ταμείο έχει δανείσει 21,4 δισ. ευρώ και η Ευρωπαϊκή Κεντρική Τράπεζα 18,1 δισ. ευρώ.

Το χρέος που απεικονίζεται στο γράφημα είναι 267,5 δισ. ευρώ και παρουσιάζει τους βασικότερους πιστωτές και όχι όλους. Το σύνολο του ελληνικού χρέους ανέρχεται σε 321,3 δισ. ευρώ σύμφωνα με τα στοιχεία του ΟΔΔΗΧ στο τέλος του 2015.

A Greek View of Brexit

 Nikos Konstandaras
APRIL 25, 2016
The New York Times

ATHENS — Greeks, clinging precariously to our European Union membership for the past few years, have watched with particular fascination while at the other end of Europe, Britons head for a referendum on June 23 to decide whether to leave the Union.

For around 200 years, Greece and Britain have been tied together. Britain, as a leading economic, political, military and technological power, has had inordinate influence on modern Greek history. At the height of its imperial power, Britain was decisive in helping the Greeks break free of the Ottoman Empire; in World War II and the Greek civil war that followed, Winston Churchill fought to keep Greece in the Western camp and succeeded. Now both nations, from very different positions, pose a serious threat to the European Union.

Greece Returns 12 Syrians to Turkey; Will Build 4 More Camps

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
APRIL 27, 2016, 10:54 A.M. E.D.T.


The New York Times

ATHENS, Greece — Greece on Wednesday returned 12 Syrians, including a woman and her four children, to Turkey as part of a European Union-Turkey agreement aiming to stop the flow of refugees and migrants across the Aegean to Europe's more prosperous heartland.

The 12 were flown from the Greek island of Lesbos to Adana in Turkey by a plane chartered by the European border agency Frontex, Greece's citizens' protection ministry said, noting all had expressed the wish to return and none had applied for asylum in Greece.

Under last month's EU-Turkey deal, people arriving clandestinely on Greek islands from Turkey from March 20 onward face being returned unless they successfully apply for asylum in Greece. So far, 386 people have been returned under the deal, Greece says.

Greece Pushes for Eurozone Summit Meeting to Unblock Debt Talks

By JAMES KANTER and NIKI KITSANTONISAPRIL 27, 2016

The New York Times

BRUSSELS — Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras of Greece asked on Wednesday for a summit meeting of eurozone leaders that would allow him to make his case for easier terms on sorely needed aid to help his country avoid bankruptcy.

Without new rescue money by July, Greece could default on its debts and throw the 19-member eurozone into another period of chaos. There could also be a domestic upheaval in Greece similar to last summer, when the country had a referendum on the terms accompanying its third bailout, followed by snap general elections.

Negotiations Stall Between Greece and International Creditors

Greece’s government and IMF at odds over “contingency” austerity measures
The Wall Street Journal

By NEKTARIA STAMOULI and  MARCUS WALKER
Updated April 26, 2016 4:31 p.m. ET
ATHENS—Negotiations between Greece and its international creditors ran into trouble on Tuesday over demands for extra austerity measures, denting hopes for a quick end to the monthslong deadlock over the country’s bailout.

The impasse is the latest in a saga of troubled talks. The Greek government and the International Monetary Fund are at loggerheads over how to find up to €3.6 billion ($4 billion) in so-called contingency measures, or additional austerity, if Greece misses its budget targets.

No deal between Greece and lenders seen on Friday: Eurogroup head

Fri Apr 22, 2016 3:29am EDT

Reuters

Greece and its international lenders are unlikely to reach an agreement on Friday that would unlock further loans and pave the way for debt relief talks, despite some progress made in talks on reforms, euro zone officials said on Friday.

Euro zone ready to finalize Greek deal next week, if talks succeed

Wed Apr 20, 2016 11:27am EDT Related: WORLD, GREECE, CAMPAIGN FINANCE
BRUSSELS/ATHENS | BY FRANCESCO GUARASCIO AND RENEE MALTEZOU

Reuters

Euro zone finance ministers are ready to hold an extraordinary meeting next week if negotiations on the review of the Greek reform program are concluded, a senior EU official said on Wednesday, commenting that talks remained difficult.

Discussions between Greek authorities and international lenders have resumed this week in Athens with the aim to conclude a reform review which is a condition to release more bailout money to Greece.

Islam, interment and Greece

Burying drowned migrants is part of a broader Greek problem
Apr 20th 2016, 12:55 BY M.TZ. AND ERASMUS | MYTILENE
Timekeeper
The Economist

THE newly established graveyard, a short drive west of Mytilene port, is a desperately sad place. In the middle of an olive grove, there are dozens of mounds of crumbly earth, some created only a month ago, with markers offering perfunctory information about the people who lie underneath: a name, a date of death or discovery and a date of interment. Sometimes the name is not known.

The crazy reason we might be facing a huge crisis in Greece again

By Matt O'Brien
April 20 at 6:30 AM

The Washington Post

Sometimes it's hard to tell whether history is repeating itself as tragedy or as farce.

Greece, after all, has had plenty of both over the past eight years. Its economy has shrunk as much as the United States' did during the Great Depression, its government has collapsed over and over and over again as a result, and its bailout is in its third iteration — without which it would have been forced out of the euro zone. How bad are things?  Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras just touted the fact that his country's unemployment rate has fallen from 26.5 percent to 24.9 percent, and that there was a month last year in which Greece's industrial production grew faster than anyone else's in Europe.

When life doesn't even give you lemons, you have to pick cherries instead.

Greek Minister Reaches Out to Lagarde as Bailout Talks Drag

 Theophilos Argitis
 theoargitis
 Rainer Buergin
 RB1atBBG
April 17, 2016 — 1:54 AM EEST Updated on April 17, 2016 — 6:04 AM EEST

Greece’s finance minister arranged a last-minute follow-up meeting with International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde before returning to Athens from a gathering of global policy makers in Washington, as the nation seeks to unlock more bailout funds from creditors.
The creditors are considering proposing additional austerity measures that would kick in if the nation missed budget targets, according to a European official familiar with the talks who asked not to be identified. The potential plan is part of efforts to conclude the current round of talks with Greece amid differences between Europe and the IMF, which is reviewing whether to join the latest program and is skeptical that Greece will be able to achieve the fiscal goals.

ISIS Expands Reach Despite Military and Financial Setbacks

By MATTHEW ROSENBERG, HELENE COOPER and NICHOLAS KULISHAPRIL 12, 2016

The New York Times

WASHINGTON — American airstrikes have killed 25,000 Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria and incinerated millions of dollars plundered by the militants, according to Pentagon officials.

Iraqi and Kurdish forces have taken back 40 percent of the militant group’s land in Iraq, the officials say, and forces backed by the West have seized a sizable amount of territory in Syria that had been controlled by the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

But the battlefield successes enjoyed by Western-backed forces in the Islamic State’s heartland have done little to stop the expansion of the militants to Europe, North Africa and Afghanistan. The attacks this year in Brussels, Istanbul and other cities only reinforced the sense of a terrorist group on the march, and among American officials and military experts, there is renewed caution in predicting progress in a fight that they say is likely to go on for years.

Greece Holds Activists as Migrants and Police Clash Anew at Macedonia Border

By LIZ ALDERMANAPRIL 13, 2016

The New York Times

ATHENS — Clashes erupted at Greece’s northern border for the second time in three days on Wednesday, with the Macedonian police firing tear gas on scores of migrants as they protested border closings that have left more than 12,000 stranded in a makeshift refugee camp.

The protests in Idomeni, a town in Greece on the border with Macedonia, came as Greek authorities arrested 14 activists there, saying that they had incited the migrants to storm the razor-wire fence dividing the two countries.