November 5, 2011
“We shout outside parliament, we call the politicians thieves and traitors, but they don’t take any notice, they just go on letting us down,” said Alexis Anagnostopoulos, an unemployed welder, after hearing about this week’s plan by George Papandreou, his prime minister, to hold a referendum in December on the euro crisis. Yet as it turns out he and other angry Greeks may not even get to vote.
A first hurdle was a vote of confidence to endorse Mr Papandreou’s proposed plebiscite. By the end of the week it seemed unlikely that his Panhellenic Socialist Movement (Pasok) could muster the required 151 votes and thus that he would even keep his job. After the October 2009 election Pasok had 160 seats in the 300-seat parliament. At the start of the week it had 152, but several more deputies promptly broke ranks. The most likely outcome as we went to press was a new government of national unity, perhaps led by a technocrat such as a central banker. Or there might be a fresh election.
Mr Papandreou had already infuriated Greece’s partners. He announced it without informing them or even his finance minister, Evangelos Venizelos, who conveniently retired to a hospital bed. The prime minister then demanded to renegotiate the country’s €130 billion ($179 billion) bail-out, less than a week after it had been accepted. The plebiscite would be held on the renegotiated package, he said at first. But an angry EU response and a summons to the Cannes G20 summit for a reprimand led Mr Papandreou to back down. The question would now be in or out, he said. Greeks feel blackmailed. Polls show that 60% are against the rigorous terms of the bail-out; but 70% want to stay in the euro.
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