Guardian
Editorial
November 1, 2011
In what must now seem like the halcyon days of opposition, when he watched a rightwing government disintegrate in grace-and-favour scandals, George Papandreou uttered the immortal words: "The money exists, it is only that Mr [Kostas] Karamanlis prefers to give it to the few and powerful." It became his election slogan. But the money never existed, as he himself was the first to realise, and the well-meaning scion of the Papandreou political dynasty quickly became for many of his former supporters part of the self-serving class he himself had pledged to dismantle. Meanwhile farmers, pensioners, and families with newborns, each of whom Mr Papandreou pledged to protect, are joining the ever-swelling ranks of a losing generation. Some 30,000 civil servants put on 12 months' notice and given a 60% pay cut, pensions of more than €1,200 a month cut by 20%, VAT up to 23% – all this pain, and for whom? Just how much austerity can any nation take?
Like his election slogan, the idea to put Greece's bailout plan to a referendum must have seemed like a good idea at the time. Everyone had been sounded out about the deal hatched in Brussels last week, from the German Greens to the French banks – everyone except the people who would have to carry it out. If economic decisions are political ones, what more relevant question could be asked of Greece than whether it supported the package? Further, one question would usefully mask two others: whether the Greeks still wanted to be part of the eurozone, and whether it still believed in Papandreou's leadership. You could see the calculation of a gambler who knows that 60% of the population are against the terms of the terms of the bailout, but 70% are against leaving the monetary union. But having returned from Brussels last week touting the deal as a personal victory, Papandreou looked last night more than ever like the kamikaze politician his colleagues suspect him of being. Six senior members of Pasok called on him to resign, and a leading Pasok MP, Milena Apostolaki, quit the parliamentary group cutting the government's majority to just two votes. If the referendum call, and a confidence vote on Friday, was him getting tough with his unruly party, too many might be tempted to call his bluff. The finance minister Evangelos Venizelos did nothing to calm nerves by hinting that he had not been consulted about the referendum and rushing to hospital with an inflamed appendix.
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