Papandreou pledges to impose austerity plan in meeting with German PM

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Amid angry protests in Greece
Papandreou pledges to impose austerity plan in meeting with German PM
By Ulrich Rippert
6 March 2010

After meeting in the morning with Jean-Claude Juncker, the head of the
Eurogroup, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou met with German
Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin Friday evening and gave assurances
that he would push through the draconian austerity measures demanded
by the European banks and the European Union.

While the social democratic PASOK prime minister was appealing for
Germany’s political support for his government as it attacked the
living standards of the Greek working class, tens of thousands of
workers and youth were demonstrating in Athens and Thessaloniki,
carrying banners calling for a “war against the war of the capitalists.”

Spontaneous demonstrations broke out near Greek government buildings
and the parliament as deputies voted in a special sitting on the
latest package of austerity measures announced Wednesday by Papandreou.

Several hundred protesters surrounded the Ministry of Finance in
Athens and prevented officials from entering the building. They
temporarily occupied several offices and took over the entrance of the
ministry, hanging a banner reading “Arise to stop the Measures from
Coming into Force.”

While Papandreou was still in Berlin, a new strike by air traffic
controllers shut down all of Greece’s airports. In Athens, no buses or
trams ran on Friday. Primary school teachers and even police officers,
who are affected by the planned cuts, called for walkouts. A further
national strike day was announced for March 16.

In his talks in Berlin, Papandreou assured Merkel and Juncker that he
was ready to enforce “painful cuts.” He declared that he had not come
to Berlin to ask the German government for money. He was not
requesting “German taxpayers to pay for our pensions and vacations,”
Papandreou said in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung. Rather, he was seeking political support for his government’s
austerity measures.

On Wednesday, the Greek government agreed to a second, more drastic
austerity package, which includes tax increases and spending cuts
amounting to 4.8 billion euros. The measures include an increase in
the value added tax from the current 19 percent to 21 percent; a 10
percent reduction in public sector wages; tax increases on petrol,
tobacco and alcohol; the freezing of pensions, and a reduction in
allowances for civil servants.

Announcing the new measures, Papandreou spoke of Greece being in a
“war situation.” The population had to be prepared to make sacrifices,
he declared, for the “survival of our country.”

Merkel and Juncker welcomed the latest measures as an important first
step, but warned Papandreou that he could not ease off and had to
prepare further austerity measures to reassure the international
financial markets and improve the country’s creditworthiness.

Merkel pointedly refrained from any pledge of financial support for
the Greek government. Instead, she praised the willingness of
Papandreou to work closely with the European Union and promised
political support in pushing through the austerity measures.

Merkel did not spell out the content of this political support, but it
was clear that such support was contingent on the PASOK regime defying
mass popular opposition to the cuts. This can only mean support for
any repressive measures Papandreou might take to suppress strikes and
protests against the austerity program.

Since the introduction of the Schengen Agreement, ratified a decade
ago in the Greek parliament, and the consequent elimination of border
controls, cooperation between the Greek and German security agencies
has been stepped up. This cooperation will be strengthened to deal
with further strikes and mass demonstrations.

At the same time, the Merkel government is using its relations with
the trade unions to keep the strikes and protests in Greece under
control and prevent them from spreading. The German unions play a key
role in the European and international labour organizations, and have
worked relentlessly to prevent the emergence of European-wide
struggles against layoffs and attacks on working class living standards.

They combine calling occasional protests to contain popular militancy
and anger with the closest collaboration with the corporations and the
European governments. John Monks, the general secretary of the
European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), addressed the rally in
Athens during the February 24 general strike. While he was launching a
verbal tirade against the austerity measures of the EU, Germany’s
largest union, IG Metall, was signing a two-year wage freeze in a
rearguard action to prop up the Merkel government and the German banks.

In his visit to Berlin, Papandreou behaved like a typical social
democrat. In the face of mounting popular anger at home, he sought the
support of the strongest imperialist power on the continent. Knowing
that the German banks are the leading force behind Brussels’ financial
dictates, he repeatedly asserted his eagerness for the closest
possible cooperation. His servility before Merkel was open and unabashed.

This has not satisfied much of the German media and political
establishment. Die Welt previously reported that the German government
wanted to see a “European Special Representative” appointed for
Greece, whose role would be to monitor the implementation of the
austerity programme on the ground. He or she could also serve as a
“lightning rod for protests by the Greek population,” the newspaper wrote.

Papandreou uttered not a word of protest against such threats to his
country’s national sovereignty or demands for what amounts to placing
Greece under receivership.

The servile attitude of the Greek prime minister seems only to have
fueled the arrogance of some German politicians and sections of the
media. In an interview with Bild, Josef Schlarmann, chairman of the
Christian Democratic Small Business Assocation, said: “A bankrupt has
to use everything he has to earn money—to pay his creditors.” Greece,
he noted, possesses buildings, companies and uninhabited islands
“which can be used to repay the debt.”

Floyd Landis, a prominent Christian Democrat, demanded that Greece
offer “securities… for example, some Greek islands.”

In a deliberate provocation, Bild published a letter to Papandreou in
Friday’s edition declaring, “If you’ve read this, you are in a country
that is quite different from yours. You are in Germany.”

The letter went on to say that, unlike Greece, people in Germany did
not laze about, but worked till they were “67 years old.” Germany, it
continued, was a country where workers had not received generous
salary increases for some time, not even civil servants.

“No one has to pay thousands of euros in bribes” to be admitted to
hospital in Germany, continued the newspaper’s rant. Although Germany
has high debts, it can pay them back, it said, “Because we get up
pretty early and work all day.”

One would have to go back to the Nazi period to find such a level of
editorial arrogance directed against “inferior” peoples.

http://wsws.org/articles/2010/mar2010/gree-m06.shtml

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