Papandreou stifled dissent within the party last week by replacing some unpopular government figures with critics of the plan. ![]() ![]() “No-one can be helped against their will,” Barroso said in Brussels, adding that backing from the political opposition - which has so far rejected the package and called for elections - was important for success.Īcting IMF chief John Lipsky sent a similar message, saying international lenders were willing to help peripheral euro zone economies as long as they tried to carry out reforms.įinance Minister Evangelos Venizelos, in an attempt to answer a key grievance of protesters, told parliament the government’s top priority would be to build a fairer tax system.Ī new opinion poll showed only 20 per cent of those questioned would vote for Papandreou’s PASOK party if an election was held now. The vote follows a European ultimatum requiring the debt-choked Mediterranean state implement a new five-year package of deeply unpopular reforms in two weeks or miss out on a 12-billion euro aid tranche and plunge into bankruptcy.Įuropean Commission President Manuel Barroso piled on the pressure, saying that Greece faced a “moment of truth” and needed to show it was genuinely committed to the reforms. Papandreou’s government, reshuffled to stiffen resolve behind a new austerity programme, is expected to survive the confidence vote but must rapidly pass two more tests - enacting the austerity plan and the laws needed to implement it - to win a new bailout and avert the euro zone’s first sovereign default. In the biggest protest in Syntagma square for several days, the protesters chanted slogans against the politicians, shone hundreds of green laser lights at the building and into the eyes of riot police outside and pushed their hands forward in a traditional insult. ![]() Thousands of demonstrators gather in front of the parliament during a rally against austerity economic measures and corruption in Athens' Syntagma (Constitution) square June 21, 2011.
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