The Greek Cabinet approved a draft bill spelling out reforms required by the EU and the IMF on Friday, taking Athens closer to getting a new 130 billion euro (US$171.6 billion) bailout after the prime minister warned the alternative was “catastrophe.”
All eyes will now be on parliament, which is scheduled to vote on the bill today. Analysts expect the deeply unpopular package to be adopted, but Greek politics remain highly unstable.
Even after this is done, the EU also wants a further 325 million euros of spending cuts and clear commitments by main party leaders that the reforms will be implemented before it agrees to release the aid.
Photo: AFP
Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos told his turbulent coalition government earlier on Friday to accept the harsh international bailout deal or condemn the nation to disaster.
“We cannot allow Greece to go bankrupt,” he told a Cabinet meeting. “Our priority is to do whatever it takes to approve the new economic program and proceed with the new loan agreement.”
Papademos, the sole technocrat in a coalition of feuding politicians, tried to assert his authority after six Cabinet members resigned over EU and IMF demands for yet more pay, pension and job cuts in return for the financial rescue.
The austerity plan includes lowering the minimum wage by 22 percent, axing 150,000 public sector jobs and reducing pensions.
“It goes without saying that whoever disagrees and does not vote for the new program cannot remain in the government,” he said in televised remarks.
Greece faces bankruptcy unless it gets the funds from the IMF and EU by March 20, when it has to repay 14.5 billion euros in maturing bonds.
“It was approved,” a minister who took part in the Cabinet meeting said about the draft bill.
A former central banker, Papademos tried to raise Greeks’ spirits as the nation enters its fifth year of recession, saying economic growth would return in 2013 despite accusations that the austerity is merely driving Greece into a downward spiral.
Any alternative to the rescue would be much worse, he said in opening remarks using the word “catastrophe” four times.
Earlier, far-right leader George Karatzaferis said he could not back the tough terms attached to the bailout and all four Cabinet members of his LAOS party submitted their resignations, along with two from the socialist PASOK party.
Papademos was not expected to react immediately to the loss of his transport minister and five deputy ministers.
“There will be no reshuffle today [Friday],” a government official said.
Adding to the confusion, Greek media said that two of the LAOS Cabinet members had resigned only under orders from Karatzaferis and would support the deeply unpopular package when parliament votes, possibly today or tomorrow.
The socialist PASOK party, one of three in the “national unity” government, called on its lawmakers to vote for the bailout, and analysts said they still thought parliament would pass the deeply unpopular package.
Outside parliament, police fired tear gas at black-masked protesters who threw petrol bombs, stones and bottles at the start of a 48-hour general strike against the cuts ordered by the “troika” of international lenders. However, the street protests were relatively small compared with last year’s mass rallies.
A group of 35 lawmakers from PASOK, whose public support has collapsed, protested against pressure from eurozone ministers.
“Our lenders are once again presenting the dilemma: either you take the measures or you lead the country to a default,” they said in a protest letter.
The biggest police trade union said it would issue arrest warrants for Greece’s international lenders for subverting democracy, and refused to “fight against our brothers.”
Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos made clear Greece has little choice but to accept the harsh conditions attached to the bailout, and a plan to halve its huge debt to private bondholders, to avoid a chaotic default next month.
LAOS leader Karatzaferis begged to differ.
“Greeks cannot be hostages and serfs,” he said. “We were robbed of our dignity, we were humiliated. I can’t take this. I won’t allow it, no matter how hungry I am.”
His party has 15 deputies in the 300 seat parliament, dominated by the socialist PASOK and conservative New Democracy parties, which both support the Papademos government.
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is