GREECE’S BELEAGUERED prime minister yesterday evening said he was determined to remain at the helm of the government and push through a new package of austerity measures after a day of political turmoil that saw more of his MPs resign.
“This is the time to do battle and we don’t have the luxury of avoiding this fight,” George Papandreou, who turned 59 yesterday, told MPs from the ruling Pasok party.
He was addressing an emergency meeting of his parliamentary party, convened after the resignations which have brought to three the number of deputies to abandon his party in less than a week.
As resigning MPs in Greece are replaced by substitutes, the departures have not affected Mr Papandreou’s slim, five-seat parliamentary majority in the 300-member assembly but have further dented his battered credibility.
In his address, Mr Papandreou added that he would also press ahead with a government reshuffle, a move he announced on Wednesday night after his attempts to form a coalition government with the main opposition conservatives failed.
His speech, however, gave no hints as to who he would include in the new cabinet or whose heads would roll.
Athens was rife with rumours as to who Mr Papandreou would appoint under the reshuffle, with some suggestions that he would assign some key portfolios to unelected technocrats, as is his right under the constitution.
Before the parliamentary party meeting, George Papaconstantinou, whose position as finance minister is considered far from secure after any reshuffle, appealed for political stability so that “the country and the economy can remain standing”.
He added that bailout programme had to continue uninterrupted “so that we can get past this difficult point with the fewest possible losses for the weak”.
His comments came as European economic and monetary affairs commissioner Olli Rehn said euro zone ministers would probably agree on Sunday to sign off the next €12 billion payment to Greece due under the €110 billion package agreed last year.
The tranche would enable Greece to continue repaying its debt over the summer, staving off a default, and give finance ministers and the European Central Bank until their next get-together in July to resolve their differences, Mr Rehn said.
The unfolding political drama in Athens forced Mr Papandreou to postpone a visit, scheduled for today, to Brussels for talks with European Commission president José Manuel Barroso, moving it to next week.
Mr Papandreou’s tough stance failed to impress some prominent opponents. Former minister and European commissioner Vasso Papandreou (not a relation) charged that the government had failed to implement the full range of measures outlined in the memorandum agreement.
“All we have implemented are salary and pension cuts, she said, dismissing the government’s economic team as an “unbelievable joke”.
Addressing his parliamentary party after the Pasok meeting, Antonis Samaras, leader of conservative New Democracy, reiterated his calls for early elections.
Adding that Mr Papandreou’s austerity measures had led to recession, he said that Greece needed to renegotiate its bailout package.