Athens faces fight to sell €50bn of assets

Financial Times
April 19, 2011

Greece said on Tuesday it would appoint international advisers within the next two months to kickstart its ambitious €50bn ($72bn) privatisation programme, while the country’s most powerful trade union pledged to disrupt the plan.

The privatisations mark a last-ditch attempt by the Athens government to restore credibility with investors and to boost the country’s chances of averting debt restructuring.

But reform fatigue has set in almost a year after Greece was bailed out by its eurozone partners and the International Monetary Fund, making it hard to win popular support for “selling the family silver”.

“Reforms so far have been slower and shallower than expected,” said Theodore Pelagidis, a Piraeus University economics professor in Athens. “Now we are going into unknown territory with a privatisation programme not backed by a social consensus.”

Public sector unions led by Genop-DEH – which represents 24,000 workers at the state electricity utility – have vowed to oppose sales.

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