Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, in a meeting with key ministers on Aug. 20, said he wanted to prepare Greeks for the coming firing of public workers and the foreclosures of homes by banks from people who can’t afford to pay their mortgages because of austerity measures the government is imposing on the orders of international lenders.
Despite pressure from the Troika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB) to step up the pace of reforms, ministers said the country is on track although the Troika said it isn’t.
“The deadlines will be met properly and nothing has changed,” Administrative Reform Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said. He said in-depth talks would be held on the progress of an overhaul of the civil service later this week, including a plan to put 40,000 workers into a scheme where they would be paid 75 percent of their already-reduced pay and fired if another spot can’t be found for them.
Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis struck a similar tone, telling reporters that, “We will be meet all our deadlines,” although Greece has missed virtually all of them over the three years it’s been receiving $325 billion in bailout loans from the Troika.
Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras said the ministers discussed how they would “coordinate” to meet targets ahead of the scheduled return of the troika at the end of next month and said he was optimistic about commitments being met but gave no details.
Asked whether Greece would seek debt relief in talks with the Troika by impossing losses on the lenders as it did to private investors, Stournaras said such a demand would be based on Greece posting a primary surplus for 2013 and that would only be clear at the end of the year. The primary surplus doesn’t include what Greece owes in interest, municipal budgets or pension costs, which would create a deficit.
As for a possible government initiative to lift a moratorium on home repossessions and auctions, Stournaras said it was not discussed during the meeting although he had earlier said that it was coming. Samaras reportedly said that the repossessions issue was “a significant one ” that he planned to “look at personally.”
The Troika wants the government to lift a ban that expires at the end of the year which prohibits homes from being foreclosed upon. Samaras has set aside a bill that would provide relief for debtors such as restructuring of loans as the government is said to instead favor letting banks take the homes even if people can’t afford to pay because of pay cuts, tax hikes and slashed pensions.
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