Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’ hopes that Greece will get an additional two years to make spending cuts and reduce its deficit got support from Austrian Finance Minister Maria Fekter, whose country is one of the 17 in the Eurozone, who said she expects more time will be granted, but that there would be no further bailouts.
In an interview in the newspaper Osterreich printed on Sept. 16, Fekter said Eurozone finance ministers are awaiting the results of a report from inspectors of the Troika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB) who are checking Greece’s progress on making reforms.
Greece is surviving on a first series of $152 billion in rescue loans and awaiting the last installment, of $38.8 billion, this month as well as a delayed second bailout of $172 billion.
Samaras said attached austerity measures – more of which he is getting ready to impose on Troika orders – have worsened the country’s five-year recession and that he needs more time to make reforms without harming the economy further and to help Greece recover. He has not formally asked for an extension, however.
But Fekter said, “Yes, we are still awaiting the Troika report and Greece still has to get some things on track but we will achieve a cost-neutral extension,” without providing any further details. She had said a meeting of EU finance ministers in Cyprus last week that some were amenable to being more lenient on Greece, although hardliners who want no concessions granted were sticking to their guns.
EU officials told Reuters that Greece is far behind on its debt-cutting program, despite more harsh austerity measures being aimed primarily at workers, the poor and pensioners, but that they didn’t want to force Greece out of the Eurozone, a move that could jeopardize the entire financial bloc.
IMF chief Christine Lagarde also said she was open to talking about giving Greece more time but also reiterated there could be no let-up in the austerity measures and that Samaras needed to pick up the pace of other reforms, such as privatization of state-owned entities, sale or lease of its properties and breaking up professional monopolies that have stifled competition.
Samaras is facing resistance from the partners in his uneasy coalition, the PASOK Socialists and tiny Democratic Left, while also trying to convince the Troika he is serious about reforms and as social unrest is building in the country with a general strike of private and public worker labor unions set for Sept. 26 and judges walking off the job for the entire month of September and other public worker sectors set to strike as well, including tax inspectors.
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