November 3, 2011
Greece is preparing for the prospect of referendum on the euro rescue package and its prime minister faces a risky confidence vote this Friday. Either vote could lead to massive tumult in Europe. German papers on Thursday weigh the importance of democracy and the common currency.
When he announced a referendum yesterday on the most recent euro rescue package, Greek Prime Minister Giorgios Papandreou put his own job on the line, as well as the future of the common currency. That wasn't quite the idea -- he wanted to save his job -- but now his government has to hustle to avoid collapse.
"I don't think the government will last until tonight," Costas Panagopoulos, Managing Director of the polling firm ALCO, told Reuters on Thursday, referring to new instability in Papandreou's ruling coalition. "Under these conditions a referendum is exactly what the country does not need," a finance ministry source added.
The aim of a referendum was to bolster support for Papandreou's government and avoid a snap election -- by giving Greek voters the right to weigh in on the harsh austerity measures demanded by the EU under the terms of the debt-rescue plan. "It was essentially overdue that the Greek people finally be asked what they want," the German economist Gustav Horn, from the Macroeconomic Policy Institute (IMK), told SPIEGEL this week. "The burdens being placed on their shoulders are too heavy to be legitimated solely by parliamentary decision."
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