ATHENS (MNI) – Greece’s prime minister Antonis Samaras Tuesday called
for “as wider unity as possible in order to save the country” and stated that
negotiations with the representatives of the European Commission, the ECB and
the IMF “will continue”.
In a public address which was not scheduled, Samaras said in a
dramatic tone that he wouldn’t dream of abandoning the effort to save
the country and that his prime concern was “Greece and its future”.
Earlier on, the coalition party leaders had a marathon meeting in
an effort to breach their differences and reach an agreement on the 13.5
billion euros worth of fiscal measures needed to release the much needed
loan tranche.
However, Democratic Left head, Fotis Kouvelis, one of the coalition
leaders, continues to veto the labor reforms proposed by the so-called
troika. The other coalition participant, socialist PASOK head, Evangelos
Venizelos, appears to be unwilling to vote in favor of the labor
measures, unless Kouvelis also agrees.
The prime minister has set Thursday as the deadline for a final
agreement and called for a new coalition leaders’ meeting for tomorrow
morning.
Last week, during the EU Summit meeting in Brussels, Samaras
clearly stated that the country would run out of cash on November 16 and
urged for the prompt release of the 31.5 billion euros loan tranche.
Negotiations with the troika officials continue on a technical
level and via email, the prime minister said.
Greece wishes to call an extraordinary eurogroup meeting next week,
either in physical presence or via teleconference and get the euro
finance ministers’ agreement for the loan tranche release.
But in order to do that, the Greek coalition government must first
agree on the fiscal package and table it to parliament for approval.
–Athens bureau; apapamiltiadou@mni-news.com
** MNI **
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