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Greek PM demands EU stop 'unilateral actions' as tensions flare by Costas Pitas and Caroline Copley ATHENS/BERLIN March 18, 2015 (Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras lambasted European partners on Wednesday for criticizing a new anti-poverty law hours before it is voted on, saying it was the euro zone rather than Athens that must stop "unilateral actions" and keep its word. Tsipras's impassioned speech to parliament as it prepared to vote on his government's first bill marked the latest escalation in a war of words between Athens and its creditors that has raised the risk of a Greek bankruptcy and euro zone exit. European Council President Donald Tusk called a meeting on Greece for Thursday evening at Tsipras' request on the sidelines of an EU summit with the leaders of Germany, France, the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the chairman of euro zone finance ministers. The leftist Greek leader is pressing for a political decision to break Greece's cash crunch, while the creditors have insisted Athens must first start implementing previously agreed economic reforms and hold detailed talks on its financial plans. . . . <http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/18/us-eurozone-greece-eu-idUSKBN0ME0NM20150318> Warnings Raised of a Greek Exit From the Euro by Liz Alderman NYTimes March 18/19 print PARIS — Just a few weeks ago, fears that Greece might exit the euro union subsided when Europe extended its financial bailout. But as a new war of words escalates between Athens and its creditors, talk of a “Grexit” is heating up. In the last several days, European and American banks, think tanks and ratings agencies have issued a fresh round of warnings and studies calculating the damage to the currency union if Greece were to default on its debts or stop using the euro. . . . One of the main sticking points is Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s pushing ahead with an anti-austerity agenda that creditors say conflicts with pledges he made on Feb. 20 in winning an agreement to let Greece extend its 240 billion euro, or $254 billion, bailout program for four months. That deal was crucial to giving Greece the ability to unlock loan money it badly needs. But so far, no funds have been forthcoming. On Wednesday, Greece’s Parliament approved a number of anti-poverty measures despite warnings from creditors that the legislation ran contrary to the overall package of changes Greece had agreed last month to adopt. And it probably did not help Greece’s debt diplomacy that members of Mr. Tsipras’s Syriza party were among the thousands of European demonstrators in Frankfurt on Wednesday protesting, amid tear gas, European Central Bank policies. . . . Tax receipts have fallen by more than €1 billion since the Syriza party came to power in January. In the face of the cash squeeze, the state has said it might have to borrow money from national pension and farmers’ funds to avoid default, and withhold back payments owed to hospitals and other state entities. Several of Greece’s largest companies are also privately complaining that the state has not paid them millions of euros owed for construction and other state contracts since December. A number of large and medium Greek companies have started withdrawing cash overnight from their Greek bank accounts to banks in London, Luxembourg and elsewhere, and returning the money in the morning to finance their business operations, according to Athens-based analysts, bankers and Greek company officials aware of the transfers. All declined to speak for attribution. The practice — which is legal and was last used widely by Greek companies and multinationals with Greek operations in 2012, when fears of a Greek euro exit ran high — is meant to protect the companies’ euro holdings in case capital controls are imposed overnight or over a weekend in Greece, or in the event of some other financial calamity, these people said. . . . <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/19/business/international/warnings-raised-of-a-greek-exit-from-the-euro.html> Germany Is Risking Greece’s Euro Exit, Tsipras Ally Says by Patrick Donahue and Birgit Jennen BloombergBusiness March 18, 2015 Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government risks pushing Greece out of the euro area with austerity demands, creating an “incalculable” economic threat to the shared currency, a leader of Germany’s biggest opposition party said. Sahra Wagenknecht, whose anti-capitalist Left party opposes Merkel’s policy prescriptions for keeping the euro intact, said rhetoric by policy makers such as Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble is draining investor confidence in the Greek government. . . . Wagenknecht favors a Greek debt cut and a wealth tax to fill public coffers. She also suggests Merkel’s government re-examine its refusal to reopen Greek claims for German reparations for World War II, a point raised by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras since he took office in January. Some German lawmakers from the Social Democrats and the Greens, the second-biggest opposition party, are also urging Merkel to engage with Greece’s demands. . . . <http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-18/germany-is-risking-greece-s-euro-exit-tsipras-ally-says> Greece gains allies in Bundestag over WWII reparations dispute EurActiv.com March 18 First, only Germany’s Left Party was in favour of meeting Athens' demands for war reparations. Now politicians from the governing SPD, and the Greens support compensating Greece for the effects of atrocities committed by the Nazis during WWII, EurActiv Germany reports. More and more politicians in Germany are calling on the federal government to compensate Greece financially for the effects of the Nazi occupation. “In my view, the situation is politically straightforward: we should reach out financially to the victims and their relatives,” said Gesine Schwan, chairwoman of the Social Democratic Party’s (SPD) Basic Values Commission and two-time candidate for the office of federal president. It is about time the German side recognised that Greece was subjected to “terrible injustice”, Schwan told Spiegel Online. “We should not link the issue of reparations with the current debate over the eurocrisis. But regardless, in my view we must have the compensation discussion,” deputy SPD leader Ralf Stegner echoed. “This has to do with how we handle our own history. I am against debates over putting the past behind us. Even decades later, there are issues in international law that have yet to be solved.” Meanwhile, the head of the Bundestag’s Green party faction, Anton Hofreiter, said the demand from Greece can “not simply be swept under the carpet” by the German government. This chapter has neither morally nor juridically been concluded once and for all. More than 50,000 Greek Jews were murdered in gas chambers. As retribution for the fierce opposition against German occupation, Nazi soldiers carried out numerous massacres, including the one that took place in Distomo, on 20 June 1944, killing 218 civilians. Nazi occupation also led to severe famines. During the first winter under German control, at least 100,000 Greeks died of starvation, explained Hagen Fleischer a Greco-German historian. The situation was so desperate that the people made bread out of grass and cooked soup from the straw in their brooms, Fleischer said. When today’s austerity policy causes people to go to the soup kitchens for meager meals, it reawakens these memories, said historian Olivier Delorme. . . . <http://www.euractiv.com/sections/euro-finance/greece-gains-allies-bundestag-over-wwii-reparations-dispute-312985> _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
