Athens, Greece (CNN) – The parliament in Greece is expected to vote Sunday on austerity measures demanded in return for a new eurozone bailout of the debt-stricken country.
In a speech Saturday evening, Prime Minister Lucas Papademos urged the Cabinet to approve the deal, warning of “social explosion, chaos” if it fails.
“The state will not be able to pay salaries and pensions or import basic goods” such as medicine and fuel, he warned, adding that “unemployment, which is currently unacceptably high, would increase even higher.”
Ultimately, Papademos said, if parliament rejects the deal, Greece — already in the midst of a prolonged recession — would be “bankrupted and out of the eurozone.”
Parliamentary approval would pave the way for the eurozone finance ministers to sign off on the new €130 billion ($172.6 billion) bailout deal.
[More]
See Also:
RBS staff held in tax fraud investigation
Greece ‘a breath away from ground zero’, PM warns
Forget Europe, its time for the Commonwealth
‘Greece will pay its debts back, if you let us. But not with a German knife held to our throats’
Greece must close ‘bottomless pit,’ says Schauble
Afternoon Updates:
12:27 pm EST, February 12th, 2012 — Is Portugal Next?
12:30 pm EST, February 12th, 2012 – A post-troika Greece
12:32 pm EST, February 12th, 2012 — Protesters battle Greek police as parliament decides
12:36 pm EST, February 12th, 2012 — Booker: Democracy is ending in the land where it began
12:40 pm EST, February 12th, 2012 — Gap-year holidays that reveal the madness of overseas aid
12:45 pm EST, February 12th, 2012 — EU Carbon Trade Deal Urged By Airlines
12:50 pm EST, February 12th, 2012 — Crucial euro zone vote starts in Greece
1:03 pm EST, February 12th, 2012 — Why Greece and Portugal ought to go bankrupt
1:15 pm EST, February 12th, 2012 — Portugal unions slam IMF, EU’s ‘poverty agenda’
The only solution for Greece is to go bankrupt! Only when they understand that the cupboard is bare, that they cannot go over to the neighbors place for a cup of whatever, that their retirement must, MUST be delayed will they understand how deep their problems really are.
There is nothing left, except a message for the rest of the world that the financial mess demands a cure.
Athens is burning….
More here….
It’s easy to throw rocks at the “lazy” Greeks, but if you’ve been working for many years with the expectation of receiving $X to live off for the rest of your life and suddenly you’re told it’s no longer there, what’s your reaction going to be? Would the police on this board be happy if their pensions were revoked for the sake of “austerity”?
The real villains here are probably dead and they’re the politicians that told Greeks x decades ago that they could throw small pebbles in the lake to build a dam. This is the risk of all pensions (many of which were evaporated in the USA during the housing crisis) face and it becomes even worse when the government has access to those pension funds for … “borrowing” a dollar here and there.
If they had compared their lifestyles to those of the other members of their ‘union’ they would have understood how unsustainable those lifestyles actually had become. They had been living in LaLa Land. And it was only a matter of time until their supporters drew a line in the sand. Wayyyyy to late unfortunately because they now threaten the entire EU.