Για την κατάθεση του προϋπολογισμού και την στάση του Αντώνη Σαμαρά γράφουν οι Financial Times, οι οποίοι τονίζουν ότι ο πρωθυπουργός αντιμετωπίζει σκληρές πιέσεις και αντιστάσεις στην κοινοβουλευτική του ομάδα της ΝΔ, την ίδια στιγμή που έχει ισχνή κυβερνητική πλειοψηφία.
Σε ...
ρεπορτάζ της Kerin Hope, οι FT αναφέρουν πως παρά τις αρχικές πιέσεις της Ανγκέλα Μέρκελ και την ΕΕ πως οι Έλληνες πρέπει να κάνουν και άλλες προσπάθειες, πλέον η Ελλάδα έχει γίνει αντικείμενο αναγνώρισης στο εξωτερικό, ωστόσο όπως τονίζει το δημοσίευμα από την στιγμή που η ελληνική κυβέρνηση έχει πετύχει πρωτογενές πλεόνασμα, «ο κ. Σαμαράς ίσως να μην είναι πρόθυμος να υποκύψει στις απαιτήσεις των δανειστών.
Για τους αξιωματούχους σε Βρυξέλλες και Βερολίνο, το αδιέξοδο με την Τρόικα στις διαρθρωτικές μεταρρυθμίσεις μαζί με την δυσφορία που επικρατεί στο εσωτερικό της ΝΔ, έχει ξυπνήσει φόβους πως μπορεί ο κ. Σαμαράς να γυρίσει πίσω στην αντιμνημονιακή στάση που κρατούσε όσο ήταν αντιπολίτευση», αναφέρουν οι Financial Times.
«Εχει δουλέψει πιο σκληρά σαν πρωθυπουργός από ότι θα έδειχνε το παρελθόν του, αλλά έχοντας κατά νου την ικανότητα του για διάσπαση, δεν μπορεί να αποκλείσει κανείς μια πολιτική αναστροφή», λέει στην οικονομική εφημερίδα ο ιστορικός Θάνος Βερέμης.
Τέλος, ιδιαίτερη εντύπωση προκαλούν «καρφιά» κατά του Πρωθυπουργού, για το πως θα μοιραστεί το πρωτογενές πλεόνασμα, από πρώην υπουργό ο οποίος δεν κατονομάζεται.
«Είναι ένας δελεαστικός αλλά επικίνδυνος δρόμος, να μοιράζεις δώρα ενώ ακόμη προσπαθείς να σταθεροποιήσεις την οικονομία. Μπορεί να προμηνύει και άλλους συμβιβασμούς σε ομάδες συμφερόντων που στο τέλος θα ισοδυναμεί με υπονόμευση όσων έχουν επιτευχθεί με κόστος».
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Πηγή: http://www.iefimerida.gr/
2 σχόλια:
Greece shows new assertive attitude to troika demands
By Kerin Hope in Athens
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For a year and a half, Antonis Samaras has kept Greece’s bailout programme broadly on track despite his coalition government’s shrunken parliamentary majority and resistance within his cabinet to implementing tough structural reforms.
For the Greek premier, stern admonitions from Angela Merkel, German chancellor, and other EU leaders that Athens must work harder to fulfil its obligations to international lenders have given way to recognition of the “sacrifices made by the Greek people” as fiscal targets are finally met.
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Greece is poised to outperform this year’s target of a balanced budget and record a primary surplus of more than €800m, permitting Athens to seek further debt relief following its partial default in 2012.
With the current account also in surplus and the economy set for positive growth next year, Mr Samaras is no longer so willing to bend to creditors’ demands.
Greek lawmakers approved the 2014 budget early on Sunday in defiance of EU regulations that it should first be approved by the commission and, in the case of Athens, by the International Monetary Fund. It boldly assumes that Athens will be able to raise funds on international capital markets next year for the first time since its partial default in 2012.
“We all want to be released from the bailout programme and this budget marks the first step. We are on the road to securing our national independence,” Mr Samaras told parliament, underscoring the government’s assertive new attitude towards the “troika” of inspectors from the commission, the IMF and the European Central Bank.
The European Commission and International Monetary Fund said late on Saturday that technical teams would return to Athens next week. “We expect a full negotiating team to return to Athens in January after the authorities have made further progress in implementation with the objective of reaching a staff-level agreement,” the IMF said.
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However, an official in Athens said the government still hoped to wrap up a deal with mission heads from the “troika” – the commission, IMF and European Central Bank – by the end of December.
Greece is still pursuing bailout reforms that have popular support – among them the dismissal of 15,000 civil servants, seen as long overdue given that more than 1.2m people in the private sector have lost their jobs.
But proposed legislation to lift a ban on home foreclosures, due to reach parliament this week is likely to fall short of the troika’s insistence on full liberalisation of mortgage claims in order to inject liquidity into Greek banks and revive the moribund housing market.
A second bill bringing in a new property tax, which includes farmers for the first time, has been adjusted to reduce amounts paid by all but the wealthiest Greeks, creating a shortfall of more than €200m in projected revenues.
For officials in Brussels and Berlin, the stand-off with the troika over structural reform, together with discontent in the premier’s New Democracy party, has rekindled fears that Mr Samaras could move back towards the anti-bailout stance he took while in opposition.
“He’s worked harder as premier than his past record would suggest to implement difficult reforms . . . but given his capacity for disruption, you can’t rule out a policy reversal,” said Thanos Veremis, an historian.
As a youthful foreign minister in 1991, Mr Samaras unexpectedly persuaded European colleagues to withhold recognition by the union of the newly independent republic of Macedonia shortly after it broke away from the collapsing Yugoslav federation. He claimed its choice of name amounted to a territorial claim on Greece’s own northern province of Macedonia.
That decision, which allowed Greece to veto Macedonia’s membership of European institutions under its constitutional name, has blocked the neighbouring republic’s membership of the Nato alliance and stalled its application for EU membership.
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In June, Mr Samaras kicked off the campaign to sack public sector workers by abruptly closing ERT, the state broadcaster, prompting the departure of Democratic Left, the junior partner, from his coalition government on grounds democratic procedures had been undermined.
With only a four-seat majority in parliament, the partnership between the premier’s centre-right New Democracy party and the PanHellenic Socialist Movement (Pasok) looks increasingly fragile.
Last week, Mr Samaras sacked the head of Dake, the centre-right trade union affiliated with New Democracy after it called on party lawmakers to vote against the budget “to prevent the social holocaust that would be caused by new austerity measures”.
Mr Samaras resisted pressure from cabinet ministers foot-dragging over reforms to sack Yiannis Stournaras, the technocratic finance minister, for noting that Greeks were still not excessively taxed by EU standards, even after the latest real estate levy was announced.
But in his budget speech the premier pledged to use €300m from this year’s primary surplus to make one-off payments to members of the armed forces and police, as well as pensioners in the lowest income bracket, promising further social benefits as the economy recovered.
“It’s a tempting but dangerous route to follow, making handouts while you’re still trying to stabilise the economy. It could presage other concessions for interest groups that in the end would amount to undermining what’s been achieved at such cost,” said a former cabinet minister who declined to be named.
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