Greece has admitted it still faces a tough job in persuading the EU and IMF to save it from bankruptcy even after parliament approved savage extra budget cuts, provoking a night of looting and burning in central Athens.
A suspicious EU has told leaders of the two parties left in the government of technocrat Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos to give written commitments by today that they will implement the pay, pension and job cuts after elections expected in April.
As parliament debated the austerity package on Sunday night, riot police fought running battles with protesters outside. By daybreak on Monday, 93 buildings had been wrecked or seriously damaged in the city center, some of them historical monuments.
The written undertakings are not the only demand eurozone finance ministers have made before they decide whether to approve a 130 billion euro (US$172 billion) bailout, part of which Athens must get if it is not to default chaotically when 14.5 billion euros in debt repayments fall due on March 20.
Weary of broken Greek promises, the eurozone ministers have also told Athens to say how it will fill a 325 million euro gap in its plan for an extra 3.3 billion euros in savings this year before they meet in Brussels today.
Government spokesman Pantelis Kapsis accepted that Athens had work to do.
“The Eurogroup on Wednesday will obviously be a tough one but the government believes the political leaders’ positions show we are determined to continue,” he said.
Greece had to seal the “Private Sector Involvement” (PSI) deal to reduce its debt burden. “The next three weeks will be hellish. The list of actions regarding the PSI and the memorandum is extremely pressing,” Kapsis said.
Terms of the PSI, under which private creditors will take a major cut in the value of their Greek government debt holdings, are set to be announced after the Eurogroup meeting, sources familiar with the talks said on Monday.
Greece’s creditors will take a net loss of 70 percent, two of the sources said.
Many Athens residents fear that Sunday night’s violence may lead to something like the riots in 2008, which spread across the country and lasted for weeks after police shot dead a 15-year-old schoolboy — or something yet worse.
“It is very likely that such protests will be repeated because people are very angry, they are outraged,” said Vassilis Korkidis, head of the Greek Commerce Confederation.
“People sent a message yesterday: Enough is enough! They can’t take it any more,” said Ilias Iliopoulos, general secretary of public sector union ADEDY. “The social explosion will come one way or another, there is nothing they can do about it any more.”
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including