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Tsipras says he has mandate for talks after parliament vote Alexis Tsipras claimed a strong mandate to complete negotiations with EU creditors after winning the backing of parliament over a painful new package of reforms. The Times of Change, Greece, July 11 <http://www.thetoc.gr/eng/politics/article/tsipras-says-he-has-mandate-for-talks-after-parliament-vote> In a statement issued after the vote in parliament, which the government won with the help of pro-European opposition parties, Tsipras said he had a "strong mandate to complete the negotiations to reach an economically viable and socially fair agreement". He made no mention of rebels within his own leftwing SYRIZA party who withheld support for the measures but said his focus was on completing the negotiations. "The priority now is to have a positive outcome to the negotiations. Everything else in its own time," he said. His last reference was aimed at the 17 dissenters in his own party, who failed to vote "Yes" in the parliamentary debate on Friday night. Add to those another 15 MPs who issued a statement after the vote saying they voted "Yes" to the negotiations but will vote "No" to recessionary measures of a potential vote and you have the picture of a fractured party. Initial reports indicate that the PM will be committing a major reshuffle come Monday, if the negotiations are successful, in order to deal with two of his cabinet ministers (Lafazanis, Stratoulis), who voted "present" in the parliamentary vote. It is also rumored that if idiosyncratic House speaker Zoe Konstandopoulou doesn't resign her post after voting "present" in last night's vote, Tsipras will be officially asking for her replacement. Other reports about asking socialist PASOK and centrist The River parties to join a newly reshuffled coalition government, are rather premature at the moment, but all possibilities are open. Euphoria swiftly dissolves in Greece as bailout plan emerges by Lefteris Karagiannopoulos I Kathimerini, Athens, July 11 (Reuters) http://www.ekathimerini.com/199332/article/ekathimerini/news/euphoria-swiftly-dissolves-in-greece-as-bailout-plan-emerges The euphoria felt by many Greeks at telling Europe their country was rejecting austerity for good lasted less than five days. On Friday, the population woke up to discover Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had promised creditors a new bailout package with austerity measures almost identical to those a majority of Greeks had voted against in Sunday's referendum. A cartoon in the Kathimerini newspaper summed up the swift change in the public mood: a group of Greeks joyously cheering with a "No" on Sunday next to a shot of the same group on Tuesday collectively gasping "Oh No!". With the government now ready to implement a package similar to one it had called a national vote to reject, 23-year-old speech therapy student Marios Rozis reckoned the situation had descended into farce. "Everybody was happy on Sunday, it was a mature decision against austerity. Today I feel the referendum happened for no reason," he said as he sipped a coffee and worked away at a laptop. "It doesn't make sense." His reaction of bitterness mixed with resignation and exhaustion reflects the souring public mood in Greece, where the jubilance of an overwhelming victory by the "No" camp on Sunday swiftly dissipated in the face of an expected economic collapse before fading altogether as the new bailout plan emerged. Even before the crisis-driven concessions were unveiled, fear had spread after Greek banks closed almost two weeks ago, freezing the economy and creating long queues at cash machines for withdrawals of a maximum of 60 euros a day while pensioners without credit cards besieged bank entrances. Quicksand Under the threat of a eurozone exit, Greece's government submitted the new package of tax and pension reforms to creditors late on Thursday in the hope of unlocking 53.5 billion euros ($59 billion) in aid and the promise of potential debt relief. Newspapers on Friday reacted with a similar sense of drama, with the Left-wing Efimerida ton Syntakton headlining its front page "Negotiating in quicksand" while the centre-right Eleftheros Typos newspaper went on the attack, estimating the 'No' vote had raised the reforms bill by 4.5 billion euros in five days. "I voted 'No'. And of course this new proposal doesn't correspond to that 'No'," said Vassilis Sika, a 20-year-old unemployed Greek in Athens' central square. "I feel like a slave. They do what they want, and we can't participate." The Communist-affiliated PAME group responded by calling for rallies across Greece on Friday evening, saying: "Everyone take to the streets! Battle now so that we can cancel the plans to bankrupt the people. We say NO to a new barbaric bailout!" However, with banks running out of cash and the spectre of economic collapse looming if no deal is reached, Tsipras appears likely to win the support of a majority of deputies in parliament for the new plan, even though some in his SYRIZA party were critical. He now dominates the Greek political scene after a referendum in which more than 61 percent of Greeks backed him by taking his advice to reject the bailout terms. Acknowledging the failure of his campaign for the 'Yes' camp, former Prime Minister Antonis Samaras resigned as leader of the centre-right New Democracy party the night of the referendum and the party has given its backing to Tsipras to negotiate a new deal with creditors. For all the resentment of the new bailout plans, Thomas Gerakis of the Marc polling group said Greeks were afraid of being kicked out of the euro zone and aware that painful reforms were the price for staying in. "This issue (staying in Europe) needs to be resolved first - the majority of Greek people want that, even with a bad deal or a worse deal," Gerakis said. Only if and when it fell into place over the weekend, he said, would the real recriminations and soul-searching begin. _________________________________________________________ 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
