Greece names new interim prime minister

August 27, 2015 By administrator

The Greek president has appointed an interim prime minister as the country prepares for fresh elections in September. Vassiliki Thanou’s selection comes after all the major parties were unable to form governments.

Vassiliki Thanou was appointed caretaker prime minister on Thursday by Greece’s President Prokopis Pavlopoulos. Thanou, head of the country’s Supreme Court, will be the first woman to hold the position as the country gears up for snap elections likely to be held on September 20.

The 65-year-old will assume the post later on Thursday evening, and then appoint a cabinet to be sworn in the following day. Her appointment comes after parliament’s three largest parties were unable to find willing coalition partners.

Outgoing Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras resigned last week after only seven months in office. Tsipras, facing a revolt from within his left-wing Syriza party, hopes to bolster support for the country’s new bailout program with a fresh election.

Greece accepted its third bailout since 2010 in July, enraging hardliners among Syriza’s ranks who saw Tsipras’ actions, after running on a campaign against austerity, as betrayal to the country’s creditors.

Despite this flip, Tsipras is expected to emerge victorious in the September polls, although it is uncertain if he will get enough votes to govern alone or be forced to seek another coalition, though he has already ruled out aligning with any opposition centrist parties.

For his part, Tsipras’ maverick former Finance Minister Yannis Varoufakis told Reuters news agency he will not partake in the “sad” elections.

Tsipras has accused Varoufakis of “losing credibility among his interlocutors” during debt negotiations with the European Union and International Monetary Fund.

es/jil (AP, AFP, Reuters)

Greece: New radical Greek leftist leader calls for Grexit

August 26, 2015 By administrator

By Nasos Koukakis, Special to CNBC.com

Alkis Konstantinidis | Reuters

ATHENS, Greece—Τhe leftists’ ruling party of Syriza in Greece faces an existential crisis as its lawmakers and party members who do not agree with the new austerity program are leaving en masse.

Today, 53 of the 201 members of the Central Committee of Syriza submitted their resignations, pointing to their joint resignation letter that as members of the Central Committee they can not serve the new austerity program.

The secession of one-fourth of the members of Syriza’s Central Committee follows the resignation of former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras last Thursday. Tspiras resigned after a rebellion in his own party over Greece’s new bailout program, which many Syriza lawmakers voted against in Parliament on August 14. His concessions went against his promise to repeal austerity measures.

Moving to a more radical agenda

On this basis, the members of Syriza who fled the leftist party today vehemently criticized Tsipras, stating that the recent developments “will be recorded with black letters in the history of the country but also in the history of the Greek Left.”

The 53 dissidents have already said that they will support the newly formed Popular Unity Party (Laiki Enotita). The leader of the new anti- bailout party is Panagiotis Lafazanis, who is the former Energy Minister of Greece and Syriza’s co-founder. Lafazanis openly blasted Tsipras decision to accept the Eurozone Summit on July 12 and voted against all the austerity bills submitted to the Greek parliament for the new rescue agreement.

On Monday, Lafazanis was granted the maximum three-day mandate from President Prokopis Pavlopoulos to form a government after the main opposition conservative New Democracy leader Vagelis Meimarakis failed to form one. Considering the fast turnaround, Lafazanis is expected to fail. As a result, Greeks will going back to the ballot box on September 20 to vote for a new government for the second time in eight months.

Read MoreWhy early elections are bad for Greece

It’s expected that after the forthcoming elections Lafazanis will become the regulator of the political developments, as he will be the main critic of the austerity program, especially if his party takes third place in the elections.

Currently, there are no credible opinion polls in Greece to gauge how the political landscape will shift after the elections. Most political analysts predict that the New Democracy Party and Syriza will compete for first place. Regardless, Lafazanis, will be an ardent political opponent of the new Greek coalition government.

In an exclusive interview with CNBC, Lafazanis discussed his political views. First and foremost, Lafazanis said he aims to abolish the bailout program and cancel austerity plans. As he explained, “The principles of the Popular Unity Party include the end of national subordination and the need to follow a new independent, sovereign and progressive course.”

Top on the party’s agenda is to restore salaries and pensions to levels before 2010, as well as nationalize banks and private monopolies. The Popular Unity leader is a former member of Greece’s Communist Party, and is opposed to Syriza’s transformation from a party of the radical left which seeks the extensive government intervention in the economy to a European socialist party which practices modern capitalism.

Read MoreGreece: Newly formed party receives mandate to form gov’t

“Popular Unity wants to continue the best programmatic traditions of Syriza. We want to stick to more radical commitments,” he said, explaining that he will support a decentralized economy run by trade unions, workers’ councils, cooperatives municipalities and communes.

Why Go to terrorist Turkey when you can explore the caves of Lake Vouliagmeni Greece

August 22, 2015 By administrator

“Lake Vouliagmeni, on Athens’s southern coast, is unique, with a massive cave system, white cliffs and warm waters – which under temperate conditions are also extremely clear – while the colors you see inside from the refraction of the light and the clear waters are really spectacular,” says Spyros Kollas, a professional diving instructor and enthusiast who has spent the past 16 years exploring the world beneath the waves.

In February, under his guidance, the 24-member InnerSpace Explorers Greece diving team – comprising mainly Kollas’s students, from Greece, Switzerland, Sweden, Germany and Spain – started the exploring the mysterious lake in Vouliagmeni. The aim was for them to gain experience in how a proper diving expedition works, as well as to chart – for the first time ever – four small caves that lead into the lake’s legendary main cave further in.

For some three months, members of the team conducted dives in teams of up to six people – breaking off into pairs – and took measurements, photographs and videos while also collecting other data. They would meet early in the morning to get themselves and all their gear to Vouliagmeni and start the dives. Each dive would last a maximum of 90 minutes – which was how long their oxygen and bodies could last – before packing everything up again and heading back home. It was an arduous and time-consuming process, but they had fun, they learned a lot and they all got hooked. Some team members with demanding jobs had to fit dives in around their busy schedules while others traveled from abroad, but all managed to overcome any kind of of obstacle in order to return to the water.

The first phase of the project was completed a few weeks ago with the mapping of the first of the four small caves.

“It has a length of 70 meters from the entrance, a width of 30 meters, and a height, from the top to the bottom, of 40 meters, exceptionally clear waters and no stalagmites or stalactites. It is stunning,” says Kollas.

The team’s discoveries will not remain secret for long as a recent partnership between InnerSpace Explorers Greece and Dutch firm Reef Interactive, which specilizes in 3D imaging, has resulted in the first 3D interactive dive map app, which allows users to take a virtual dive into this particular part of Lake Vouliagmeni, receiving information such as the temperature of the water, the depth and the kinds of rocks found there.

The next phase of the operation, which consists of mapping the antechamber of the lake’s main cave, will start in early 2016.

Nikolas Margaritis, already excited by the first phase, has already said he wants to be part of the next mission.

“Being part of the project combined the pleasure of recreational diving with active learning and offered me an education in matters of the environment, charting, geology and in coordinating a team and managing resources,” he says.

For Dimitris Dainavas, a nurse, it was the first time he had ever been cave diving and he has just one word to describe the experience: awesome.

Oddly enough, the word fear never comes up in our conversation, even though Kollas admit there are a lot of risks involved.

“Cave diving is dangerous because there’s a ceiling above you. You can’t come up for air – you need to swim out and then come up. There is also very little light. Moreover, when we’re mapping, we also have all the different machines for collecting data, ropes, tools, measuring tapes – these make it all the more complicated. It is an environment that can change in an instant. Anyone cave diving needs to be constantly alert and prepared,” he warns. “If you aren’t aware of all these factors, then you’re in danger.”

The aim of the expedition is more than discovering Lake Vouliagmeni.

“Our aim is for the divers to combine pleasure with giving back to society. We are happy to dive in the lake, but at the same time we are part of an operation that will lead to it being mapped for the first time. The maps will help people who want to visit it in future come properly prepared and be aware of what they’re facing. They will also attract dive tourists from other parts of the world.

Foreign divers will know that they can enjoy a unique experiencing diving in this beautiful Greek lake.”

Source: http://www.ekathimerini.com/200705/article/ekathimerini/life/exploring-the-caves-of-lake-vouliagmeni

Greek PM Tsipras Announces Resignation

August 20, 2015 By administrator

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced his resignation on Thursday to open the possibility of early general elections.

Alexis Tsipras said that the January 25 mandate he received “had exhausted its limit, and now people should decide anew,” adding that he “doubted the agreement with creditors was enough”.Earlier on Thursday a source in the Greek government told Sputnik the decision to hold an early election was taken after more than 35 legislators voted against the third international bailout package.

By June 22, the Greek Government was forced to pass laws to fundamentally tighten Greece’s legal and banking system. This was a precondition the troika demanded, because the Greek banking and regulatory system had been in need of reforms for decades.

However, Tsipras’ party has been split over the conditions and he is under severe pressure at home from many who say he has given in to the hated Troika and has gone against the fundamental principle of his party, which is to fight against the tough austerity measures.

Many feel that the pension and tax reforms that Tsipras signed up to are too much and that other reforms — including shops opening on Sundays, longer opening hours, changes to pharmacy ownership, new milk and bakery rules and the sale of state assets, including ports and mass privatization — are a step too far.

His threat of a snap referendum could plunge Greece into another crisis, if the party goes against what Tsipras agreed with the troika in return for a third bailout.

Greek PM Tsipras to call snap election – State TV

August 20, 2015 By administrator

Protesters attend a rally in front of the parliament building in Athens

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is set to announce snap elections later on Thursday, according to state broadcaster ERT. The move comes after Athens managed to pay a huge piece of its debt – €3.4 billion ($3.79 billion) – to the ECB.

Numerous sources earlier speculated that the snap elections may be held in September (13 or 20), other spoke of October, after all the scheduled repayments to international lenders are through. Report RT

Local media have been speculating about the possible upcoming announcement since Thursday morning.

Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos, in particular, told ERT that this time the election “will not be the same as those of 2012, because now there is agreement, and there is a framework for the recapitalization of banks.”

An unnamed Greek official, when asked by journalists if Tsipras could announce snap elections in coming hours, said “everything is possible“, Reuters reports.

Energy Minister Panos Skourletis and other politicians have been recently calling for the government to return to the ballot box.

“The political landscape must clear up. We need to know whether the government has or does not have a majority,” he told ERT.

On Friday, eurozone finance ministers agreed to a third bailout program for the crisis-stricken country. Athens will receive a total of €86 billion over three years.

The same day, the Greek parliament approved a draft law enacting a third bailout plan. Forty-three members of Tsipras’s Syriza party, including former Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, voted against the bill or abstained. The party holds 149 seats in the parliament.

Germany gains €100 bn from Greece crisis: study

August 10, 2015 By administrator

Germany, which has taken a tough line on Greece, has profited from the country’s crisis to the tune of 100 billion euros ($109 billion), the AFP reports, citing a new study.
The sum represents money Germany saved through lower interest payments on funds the government borrowed amid investor “flights to safety”, the study said.

“These savings exceed the costs of the crisis – even if Greece were to default on its entire debt,” said the private, non-profit Leibniz Institute of Economic Research in its paper.

“Germany has clearly benefited from the Greek crisis.”

When investors are faced with turmoil, they typically seek a safe haven for their money, and export champion Germany “disproportionately benefited” from that during the debt crisis, it said.

“Every time financial markets faced negative news on Greece in recent years, interest rates on German government bonds fell, and every time there was good news, they rose.”

Germany, the eurozone’s effective paymaster, has demanded fiscal discipline and tough economic reforms in Greece in return for consenting to new aid from international creditors.

Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has opposed a Greek debt write-down while pointing to his own government’s balanced budget.

The institute, however, argued that the balanced budget was possible in large part only because of Germany’s interest savings amid the Greek debt crisis.

The estimated 100 billion euros Germany had saved since 2010 accounted for over three percent of GDP, said the institute based in the eastern city of Halle.

The bonds of other countries – including the United States, France and the Netherlands – had also benefited, but “to a much smaller extent”.

Germany’s share of the international rescue packages for Greece, including a new loan being negotiated now, came to around 90 billion euros, said the institute.

“Even if Greece doesn’t pay back a single cent, the German public purse has benefited financially from the crisis,” said the paper.

Varoufakis: Spain is Next to Drown in Debt After Greece

August 9, 2015 By administrator

By Philip Chrysopoulos,

Greece’s former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis said that the third bailout creditors offered was really meant to drown Greece in debt in order to divert attention from other EU problems.

Varoufakis spoke to Spain‘s El Pais and claimed that the reforms imposed on Athens by the European commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund are “going to fail.”

“The third package will not work because it was initially designed to divert attention from the problems other EU countries are facing, not to save Greece. To lend it money only to drown it in debt… The German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble wants to reconstruct the Eurozone, and pushing Greece out is only part of this plan,” Varoufakis said.

“The main goal is to deprive the European Commission of its right to handle budgetary issues and set up some observatory fiscal body that would force EU states to draw up their budgets the way the troika deems right… He wants the troika to dictate its terms where it has not been invited yet: in Madrid, Rome and above all in Paris. Greece is just a pawn on their chessboard,” the ex-minister added.

source: greekreporte

Greek bank stocks soar 17.78 percent

August 6, 2015 By administrator

Bank stocks led a much-needed Greek bourse rebound on Thursday, making up some of the ground lost in the first three sessions since the market reopened. However, traders viewed the recovery more as a correction and less as evidence of genuine expectations of an upward move in the coming days. That was also clear from the drop in trading volume.

The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index closed at 666.68 points, adding 3.65 percent to Wednesday’s 643.22 points. The large-cap FTSE 25 index expanded 4.81 percent to end at 197.96 points.

After the three-day 63.8 percent decline, the banks index clawed back 17.78 percent, as Alpha started the day at the limit down and ended 11.61 percent higher, National rose 27.47 percent and Eurobank gained 17.31 percent. Grivalia Properties lost 6.08 percent.

In total 71 stocks moved up, 22 came down and eight stayed put.

Turnover amounted to 73.4 million euros, down from Wednesday’s 81 million.

Source: ekathimerini.com

Greece’s tax revenues collapse as debt crisis continues

August 6, 2015 By administrator

As talks continue over proposed €86bn third bailout, Greek treasury says tax revenues fell 8.5% in a year, and public spending fell 12.3%

Fresh evidence of the dramatic impact of the Greek debt crisis on the health of the country’s finances has emerged with official figures showing tax revenues collapsing.

As talks continued over a proposed €86bn third bailout of the stricken state, the Greek treasury said tax revenues were 8.5% lower in the first six months of 2015 than the same period a year earlier. The bank shutdown that brought much economic activity to a halt began on 28 June.

Public spending fell even more dramatically, by 12.3%, even before the new austerity measures the prime minister Alexis Tsipras has been forced to pass to win the support of his creditors for talks on a new bailout.

Greece is due to make a €3.2bn repayment to the European Central Bank on 20 August.

Talks with the quartet of creditors, which includes the ECB, the International Monetary Fund, the European commission and Europe’s bailout fund, the European stability mechanism, are continuing, and Tsipras has suggested they are “in the final stretch”.

However, it remains unclear whether the prime minister, who was only able to pass the latest package of austerity measures with the help of opposition MPs, will be able to win the backing of his radical Syriza party for new reforms, at a special conference due to be held next month.

The IMF has made clear that it will refuse to commit any new funds until Greece has signed up to a new economic reform programme, and eurozone countries have made a concrete offer to write off part of the country’s debt burden.

Sweden’s representative on the 24-member IMF board, Thomas Östros, said there was strong support for a new Greek rescue, “but it will take time”.

He told Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter: “There is going to be a discussion during the summer and autumn and then the board will make a decision during the autumn.”

He also noted that Greece must adopt wide-ranging reforms first. “They have an inefficient public sector, corruption is a relatively big problem and the pension system is more expensive than other countries.”

Despite the grim news on the public finances, Greek stock markets bounced back yesterday, after three straight days of decline, with the main Athens index closing up 3.65%.

In a separate piece of more optimistic news, official figures showed that the unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest level in three years – though it remains at a historic high of 25%.

Source: The Guardian

Greece: European Commission prepared extensive report on Grexit

July 19, 2015 By administrator

An extensive report covering all the consequences of a Greek exit from the euro was compiled in secrecy over the last few weeks by a team of European Commission officials, Kathimerini has learned.

The report is currently housed in a safe a few meters from European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker’s office on the 13th floor of the Berlaymont building in Brussels.

It was compiled toward the end of June by a team of 15 Commission officials, many of whom had previously had direct involvement in the Greek bailout programs. The report addresses some 200 issues that could arise from a Greek exit from the single currency, including potentially devastating social consequences.

One of the matters examined in the report is whether Greece would also be forced to leave the European Union, and therefore the Schengen Area, if it had to abandon the euro.

The content of the study was explained verbally by Juncker to Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras before the eurozone leaders’ summit that took place two days after the July 5 Greek referendum. The European Commission president suggested to journalists in his press conference afterward that such planning had taken place.

In an interview with Kathimerini and other European newspapers on Thursday, European Council President Donald Tusk said that Greece and its lenders came very close on Monday morning to failing to agree a deal to keep the country in the eurozone. “I told them, ‘If you stop this negotiation, I’m ready to say publicly: Europe is close to catastrophe because of 2.5 billion,’” said Tusk of his message to Tsipras and German Chancellor Angela Merkel before an agreement was reached.

A high-ranking European official also told Kathimerini that differences between Tsipras and Merkel in the early hours of July 13 over how money from a privatization fund could be used threatened to lead the talks to failure. “It was as if they were looking for an excuse to break up the talks,” he said.

“It was a really dangerous moment but also a genuine one as this was a reaction to the fatigue and frustration that both of them felt.”
Source: ekathimerini.com

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