Here is the Athens News report of Angela Merkle's visit.
My quick skim saw no mention of a release of funds.
Just happy talk in public.
I think she told the Greeks no. The world will know in a few days.
4:45 is the "money quote".
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Welcome to the Athens News live news blog, where we will be covering German Chancellor Angela Merkel's visit to Athens
7.18pm Angela Merkel waves goodbye and boards the plane back to Germany. Thanks for following our live news blog!
7.15pm Foreign Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos sees Chancellor Merkel off at the Athens International Airport.
6.50pm Angela Merkel departs for the airport as Antonis Samaras speaks to journalists outside the Hilton hotel.
6pm Here's something we spotted earlier but didn't
have time to post: a photograph of a naked protester running around
Syntagma, underred at what was going on around him.
5.25pm The meeting between President Papoulias and
Chancellor Merkel ended some minutes ago. Merkel and Samaras are now at
the Hilton hotel for a meeting with Greek and German business leaders.
4.45pm Papoulias gestures to a chair where Merkel
can sit. Merkel smiles almost shyly as she sits, translators kneel
between the two leaders with pads of paper in hand. Photographers are
visible in the mirror behind the two leaders.
In comments made before the press, Papoulias looks her in the eye
and says: "We have almost exhausted our endurance. We must think of
measures that will bring hope, particularly growth measures. We must
fight youth unemployment, and underemployment of women. I don't have
anything else to say, we will discuss it in the future, Ms Prime
Minister (as he called her). I am quite pleased that you visited."
4.40pm Samaras and Merkel walk side by side down
the street outside Megaro Maximos. Samaras leans in to the shorter
Merkel, gesturing as he appears to explain something. They pass the
national guard and turn into the Presidential Mansion.
4.25pm Samaras: "I don't want to appear to be
happy or satisfied, because that will not come off well to my
constituents. But we are doing good work."
4.20pm Merkel: "I am not here as a teacher giving grades, I am here to give support."
4.15pm "What is the purpose of your visit and what
do you think that it means to people?" A Greek reporter asked. Merkel
replied, "I came here to understandthe situation on the ground. Close
contact leads to greater understanding. What the visit means to Greeks, I
don't know."
Samaras added, "Merkel's visit breaks an isolation that Greece was experiencing up until this moment."
4pm We are opening a new chapter, Samaras and Merkel announce.
Samaras began the joint press statement, saying
"Europe is a common house for all of us...We will enact the measures
which we should have enacted long ago. I told Merkel that the Greek
people are bleeding this moment, but that I am sticking to the plan. We
don't ask for favors. Merkel showed respect for the sacrifices we have
made, and says that they must not go to wate. Greece has turned a page,
and that her image in the international press has improved
significantly. our dignity has increased, and Merkel's visit shows this.
Greece will come out of the crisis stronger."
Merkel followed, saying: "the period that greece is passing is very
difficult. a large part of the road has been travelled. despite the
difficulty of this, it is worthwhile for Greece to finish what it has
started, otherwise things will be even harder. We do this so that our
children and grandchildren can live in a better place. Of course, we are
not the representatives from troika, but what we can do is give some
encouragement."
The statements were followed by questions from the press.
One reporter asked Merkel: "Unemployment is the biggest problem we
face in Greece. Other than saving the patient, who is called Greece, can
you tell us if this patient will be able to get out of bed, and walk,
even run?"
Merkel replied "We have a common currency. If one is not well in
this currency, then everyone is not well. Important steps have been
taken, but we have not yet finished. But there is a light at the end of
the tunnel."
3.35pm German newspaper Der Spiegel is also covering Merkel's visit live/
3.30pm Pasok "Greece wants to stay in the eurozone and calm protests can help us to demonstrate this fact."
3.25pm Golden Dawn comment: "Merkel comes to seal the enslavement of the country."
3.25pm Communist Party leader Aleka Papariga on
the visit: "The countries that are not afraid to break the class
distinctions are those that will win. That is today's message."
3.25pm The lower half of Syntagma is calm.
3.20pm Protesters press against the barricades on Vassilis Sofias, forcefully shaking them up and down in attempts to overturn them.
3.15pm Reports of glash grenades going off at the
barricade on Vassilis Sofias and tear gas being used on protesters who
tore at the fence in front of parliament.
3.05pm Merkel and Samaras have finished their tete a tete and begun a working lunch.
2.50pm TV stations opt to replay and comment on
Samaras and Merkel interactions rather than show footage of the protest,
while they await the joint press statement at 4pm.
2.40pm Ccommentators debate: what is the symbolic
significance of the fact that Merkel is wearing the same outfit she wore
to the Greece versus Germany soccer match?
It's clearly the same soft green blazer: on the left, Merkel
celebrates after Philipp Lahm scored during the quarter-final soccer
match between Germany and Greece in the Euro 2012 in Gdansk on 22 June.
On the right, Merkel wearing the same blazer outside the Maximos Mansion
today!
2.35pm Tsipras says from Syntagma "Merkel came to
greece to support the Merkelists of greece. She came to support them,
but instead she gave Greece and our allies the chance to say to all that
the democratic legacy of europe will not allow Greece to become the lab
rat of the crisis."
2.30pm It's difficult to put a number on the
demonstration in central Athens, but eyewitnesses say that Syntagma is
pretty full, as is Stadiou St (from where protesters attending the Pame
trade union rally are coming), and Amalias Avenue.
One protester burned a nazi flag, though such actions were by no means typical of the protest
2.25pm There are reports that police detained 40 people by 2pm. One eyewitness, Theodora Oikonomides (@IrateGreek),
said she saw police taking 20 schoolgoers into preventative detention
in the space of 15 minutes because they were carrying school bags.
2.27pm One observation we made about the arrival
of two leaders at the Maximos Mansion: both opened their own car doors.
We're not sure if this is an effect of austerity or an attempt to show a
common touch.
2.12pm They are now inside, chit-chatting on the couch. Both spoke in English, with Samaras showing much more proficiency.
"This is my office," Samaras said. Responding, Merkel said it "was a
nice office" and then asked where the cabinet met. She's clearly here
for business.
2.10pm Antonis Samaras and Angela Merkel have
reached the Megaros Mansion. Doing lots of pointing, Merkel seems very
curious to know what's in the area and what the building is. She asks
where the parliament meetings, to which he responds that they assemble
at Syntagma.
2.07pm There was quite a bit of booing at the
calvacade as it passed the Erricos Dynan (Greeklish for Henri Dunant)
Hospital, some where workers have not been paid for months. According to
Skai TV, some water bottles were thrown on the road as the cars passed.
Earlier, there were angry scenes as hospital workers, who tried to get
onto the road, were pushed back by riot police.
2.05pm Here's a live stream from Syntagma.
1.55pm But on the other side of that barrier,
there's a massive protest taking place on a thronged Syntagma
Square. The country’s main private- and public-sector trade union
federations, GSEE and Adedy, called a work stoppage from noon until 3pm
and started a protest at 1pm at Syntagma Square, which along with Omonia
Square is not included in the “red zone”. The Syriza leader, Alexis
Tsipras, and the head of Germnay’s Left Party (Die Linke), Bernd
Riexinger, have said they will attend. The Communist-backed Pame union
will hold a rally at the same time on Omonia Square. Syntagma and Omonia
are not covered by the protest ban.
The protest extends all the way down Stadiou Street.
Here's a photo posted to Twitter by Apostolis Fotiadis (@Balkanizator) from Syntagma:
Here are some more photos from the protests:
And the following, which is sure to make it to the German press tomorrow:
1.50pm While waiting for the leaders' arrival at
the Maximos Mansion, it's time to take a look at what's going in the
centre. Things have come to a standstill in the "red zone" declared by
the police in which all demonstrations and gatherings have been banned
until 10pm. Here's a photograph showing the steel barrier that police
erected to seal off the entrance to parliament and the street on which
the prime minister's and president's residences are located:
Here's the "red zone":
View 9 Οκτώβρη χάρτης απαγόρευσης Συγκεντρώσεων in a larger map
1.45pm Angela Merkel last visited Greece in July 2007. What's on the schedule for her six-hour visit today? Here's a breakdown:
2.15pm Samaras and Merkel to hold private talks
at his official residence, the Maximos Mansion. This will be followed by
a press joint press conference and then lunch.
4.45pm Merkel to meet with President Karolos Papoulias
5.30pm Samaras and Merkel will meet with Greek and German business leaders, after which the chancellor will return to Germany
1.41pm The calvacade containing the leaders and entourage has not departed the airport for the drive into Athens.
1.40pm Samaras introduced the chancellor to a
number of ministers, including Avramopoulos (foreign), Stournaras
(finance) and Hadzidakis (development), and a number of his advisors.
1.34pm And there's the German national anthem, followed by the Greek. Both leaders are looking very serious indeed.
1.32pm The chancellor, wearing
an olive green jacket, has disembarked and was greeted on the red carpet
by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras.
1.30pm The place was scheduled to land at 1.30pm, so the Germans have arrived ten minutes early. The door has been opened.
1.20pm The plane carrying the chancellor has just
landed at Athens international airport. Shortly after it touched down,
the pilots put out small Greek and German flags from the cockpit
window. "
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Der Spiegel Has another view.
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9 Oct 2012: Total assets of banks could shrink by trillions of dollars as money is taken out of peripheral eurozone countries
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9 Oct 2012: The German chancellor insisted she was not in Greece as a task-master, but protesters outside were having none of it 141 comments
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Cartoon, 9 Oct 2012: Angela Merkel visit: 'I thought we'd grab a spot of lunch'
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9 Oct 2012: German chancellor flies in amid tight security as protesters hurl rocks and stones to denounce the 'architect of austerity'
I find I object to most of the attitude of Zero Hedge.
Wolf Richter www.testosteronepit.com
The hoopla in the media about German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s 6-hour stay in Greece, and the Greeks’ visceral reaction to her, made it look as if her visit actually meant something—that it would change the world for the better, would tweak it in some manner, or at least would reveal a promise to keep Greece in the Eurozone. Every minute was examined at under the microscope. “The Germans,” it was noted, for example, as the plane landed at 1:20 p.m., “arrived ten minutes early.”
So when an acquaintance of mine, who lives in Southern Greece, had dinner with one of his relatives, a ranking official at the Bank of Greece, the discussion inevitably came around to the Troika—the bailout and austerity gang from the EU, the ECB, and the IMF—and how Greece should send them packing. “Of course,” the central banker said, “it would help considerably if we actually had a functioning government these past 182 years.”
Athens was prepared for her. Both sides. Police had designated a “red zone” where demonstrating and loitering were prohibited. The Parliament, the prime minister’s mansion, and the presidential mansion were sealed off. Some metro stations were closed, some buses and trolleys were pulled out of service. Water cannons, 7,000 police in riot gear, crowd-control fences... it was all there.
As were 80,000 protesters—or 60,000—who’d been seething for days. It wasn’t just Merkel’s presence on their soil, but also the restrictions on their constitutional right of assembly. “FRAU MERKEL GET OUT,” a poster read. A group of school kids were taken into custody. Tear gas was used. Protestors were trying to tear down crowd-control fences. A melee broke out. Rocks flew. A Nazi flag was burned. But... “Strange thing about Greek demos is that they are part political protest, part village fete, small of meat on the BBQ everywhere,” @teacherdude reported (screenshot).
So why the heck did Merkel dive into this? To express “her support for the difficult reforms,” government spokesman Steffen Seibert explained on Monday, and to “emphatically” point out “everything” that still needed to be done. It was the outline of her strategy. Accomplished politician, she’d try to satisfy both sides, those who want Germany to open the wallet even more, and those who don’t want to see their money disappear into a bottomless pit.
Prime Minister Antonis Samaras welcomed her at the airport. Then their motorcade took them to the Maximos Mansion, his official residence, where they chatted for an hour. They probably didn’t even try to resolve Greece’s complex problems, as the platitudes in their joint statement to the press showed.
“Europe is a common house for all of us,” said Samaras in kicking off the joint statement—he said Europe, not the Eurozone, perhaps a hint at what is to come. Though the Greeks were “bleeding,” he was “sticking to the plan.” Greece “has turned a page,” and Merkel, who’d “shown respect for the sacrifices,” had improved her “image in the international press.” So was this the goal of her visit? To improve her image?
Merkel was the epitome of understanding. Greece is in a “very difficult period,” she said, but should “finish what it has started,” otherwise “things will be even harder.” It’s about “our children and grandchildren.” Then, brutally, she pointed at the sword of Damocles hanging over Greece: “Of course, we are not the representatives from the Troika.”
The mighty Troika. It will come out with a report that had been delayed, rescheduled, and re-rescheduled. It will spell out whether or not Greece complied with the agreed-upon 89 “structural reforms.” It’s a huge report, worked on for months, a shield for politicians to hide behind, even for Merkel [Greece Prints Euros To Stay Afloat, The ECB Approves, The Bundesbank Nods, No One Wants To Get Blamed For Kicking Greece Out].
And what was the purpose of her visit, a reporter asked. “I came here to understand the situation on the ground,” she said. “Close contact leads to greater understanding. What the visit means to Greeks, I don’t know.”
So it went. No answers of any kind. They strolled to the Presidential Mansion and said hi to President Karolos Papoulias before heading to the Hilton for a meeting with business leaders from both countries. Chancellors have to bring home the bacon. They travel with a delegation of executives and meet local tycoons to do business. With privatizations on the docket in Greece, surely there’d be some sweetheart deals to be made. And by 7:18 p.m., she was waving goodbye from the door of the plane.
She’d given nothing away. Other than platitudes. No assurances that Greece would remain in the Eurozone, though it was her “hope and wish” that Greece should try. A broken record. There was no promise that the next bailout tranche of €31.5 billion would be disbursed, ever. Greece, which has been paying its bills only selectively, will run out of money entirely by the end of November, and barring a miracle, would have to revert to the drachma.
But Merkel, the quintessential political animal with an election next year, had her reasons for going to Greece. Perhaps it was a show of support for a post-euro Greece—a show she put on for her own electorate—when Germany, along with other countries, would unleash a flood development aid to get Greece back on its feet. And that would look good at home.
Awful as Greece’s GDP has been, it doesn’t do justice to the economic fiasco. Take new vehicle sales: in August, they plunged 80% from August 2008. People have stopped buying cars. And not just cars. Read.... Greece, “Tell Brussels To Take A Hike” And Let The Troika Bail Out The ECB Instead.
And in Spain, another fiasco: 84% of the people have “little” or “no” confidence in Prime Minister Rajoy. The fate of opposition leader Rubalcaba is even worse: 90% distrust him! Those are the two top political figures of the two major political parties; and the utterly disillusioned Spaniards are defenestrating them both. Read... Punishment Of The Spanish Political Class By The People.
http://brucekrasting.com/on-merkels-gamble/
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
On Merkel’s Gamble
What to make of the Merkel visit to Athens today? What was she thinking about? Some possible answers:
A) Merkel is a political genius. She has seized on a historical moment. Ms Merkel’s trip has provided much needed proof that she (and therefore Germany) stand shoulder to shoulder with Greece and its leaders.
She has traveled to a hostile capital in the face of growing dissatisfaction in Germany with the Greek bailout costs. She has, once again, stood defiantly in support of the EU, the Euro and Greece’s continuing in the Union.
Any lingering doubts that may exist about the commitment of the EU leaders toward full monetary union should be eliminated as a result of her State visit.
Draghi has said, “The Euro is forever”. That was a monetary commitment. Merkel’s visit to Athens should be considered a political commitment. Of the two commitments, Merkel’s means more than Draghi’s.
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B) Merkel is an idiot. She has created the opportunity for a mass protest. The well-published report of 7,000 police in riot gear made it a sure thing that tens of thousands of people would show up in protest to her visit. She knew in advance that there would be images of the German “Nazis” that are taking over Greece. She also knows that these images will be in every magazine, newspaper and TV in Germany.
If anything, her visit will harden the opposition in Germany. This risks a domestic backlash. If the already fragile support in Germany falls further as a result of her trip, then it could accidentally accelerate a Grexit (quickly followed by Spanexit).
These images will not sit well with Germans:
++
C) Merkel is not an idiot and she does understand politics.
She must see the writing on the wall. She is faced with an election in
less than a year. There is absolutely no hope that the Euro crisis will
be more stable than it is today. It is nearly certain that it will be
worse. Merkel needs an exit strategy. The Athens trip will open a door for her. What’s in store for the next 10 months?
I) – Spain will have to accept a formal
bailout from the ECB in the not too distant future. The cost to Germany
will be in the ten’s of billions. Italy will (probably) fight tooth and
nail against an ECB bailout. But the prospect (and the need) for an
ECB/IMF – Italy deal will be front and center right at the time of
Merkel’s re-election effort.
II – Merkel also knows that she has to
carry all of the weight from now on. She once had a partner with France
and Sarkozy. That partnership went bankrupt; Merkel got stuck with all
the liabilities and none of the assets.
III – The new Socialist government of
France has taken steps that insure that France will lose competitiveness
versus Germany at a very rapid rate. France will become Spain over the
next few years. Merkel knows this today. The German people will
understand it a year.
Merkel went to Athens knowing full well that her visit would demonstrate the impossible situation that Greece is in. She wanted to see riots in the streets. She wanted the scenes to infuriate the German people. She wanted to force the issue to a boil. She needed to show “Pan Euro” intentions as she already has invested so much in that effort. But her effort was a fake “brave face”; her motivation was to create an excuse for her support to fade as she cedes to the popular “will” that she herself has created.
I’m not sure which one of these is right. I think they cover the gamut of possible scenarios. Whether she intended to or not, it is quite possible that her trip will mark a decidedly negative turning point for the Euro experiment. The FX market isn’t happy today.
Note: I don’t buy the Citi explanation for the Euro’s drop today. (Link) This drop is good old supply-and-demand, not a misread of a screen.
Merkel Reaches Out to Greece With German Voters in Mind
October 9, 2012"LONDON — The Greek authorities welcomed Angela Merkel, the visiting German chancellor, on Tuesday by cordoning off central Athens, putting thousands of police officers on the streets, snipers on rooftops and water cannons on standby.
The formidable security operation appeared to contradict the optimistic assessment of Steffen Seibert, Ms. Merkel’s spokesman, that the chancellor’s first visit to Greece since the start of the euro zone crisis was “normal.”
The one-day trip has been billed as a gesture of solidarity for Antonis Samaras, Greece’s conservative prime minister, as he struggles to meet the terms for the next installment of a bailout package to salvage the indebted economy.
That, in turn, underlines Ms. Merkel’s often-declared commitment to keeping Greece within the euro zone.
Ms. Merkel has been sounding more conciliatory toward Greece of late, with some commentators suggesting that domestic political considerations were behind the change in tone.
There probably would never be a perfect time for the European leader the Greeks most love to hate to brave a trip to Athens. So why now?
“What’s the justification for creating a three-ring security circus in the Greek capital, a general strike and quite possibly a major riot?” Paul Murphy asked in a Financial Times blog.
Alex White of JP Morgan answered Mr. Murphy’s question in part by suggesting the visit would help her respond to calls by the Social Democrats, a German opposition party, for her to be more open about her policy toward Greece.
“If Merkel were to enter next year’s election having never visited Athens, this would allow the S.P.D. to categorize her as being; i) insufficiently interested in the details of the Greek program, and ii) insufficiently concerned about the impacts and reality of adjustment,” Mr. White said.
She should have visited Greece earlier, according to Carsten Schneider, one of her Social Democrat critics. “The crisis has being going on since 2009 and just giving advice from one’s desk in Berlin looks bad,” Germany’s Der Spiegel quoted him as saying.
Der Spiegel saw the visit as part of a charm offensive aimed at improving Ms. Merkel’s image in Europe, “where many see her as indifferent to the hardship caused by austerity measures that she has insisted in return for aid.”
David Marsh, co-chairman of the London-based Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum, wrote on Tuesday: “Ms. Merkel’s visit has little to do with securing Greece’s economic future. It is all to do with securing Ms. Merkel’s political future.”
He said Ms. Merkel’s formula for winning an election next year was: “Be nice to Greece when you travel abroad and when you meet their representatives in Berlin. Be tough when you speak to the Bundestag or when you embark on the election trail.”
Mr. Marsh said the average German voter was “irritated at the thought of dispatching more taxes or savings to feckless southerners, yet is desperate for the respect and good will to Germany that comes from public displays of magnanimity.
“When Ms. Merkel flies to Athens, she is showing she is in charge, and she cares. These are things the voters expect a German leader to do.”
Whether the Greek public was prepared to return the compliment is another matter.
Nick Malkoutzis wrote in the Greek daily Ekathimerini on Tuesday: “No matter how cordial discussions between the German chancellor and Prime Minister Antonis Samaras are behind closed doors, if there is mayhem on the streets, that’s the image that will be shown on TV sets around Europe.”
He said those who felt the unruly Greeks were not worth saving would have their minds made up by what they saw, “especially if this includes pictures of German or E.U. flags being burned or protesters waving placards of Merkel dressed as an SS officer.”"
Official Warmth and Public Rage for Merkel in Athens
By RACHEL DONADIO and NICHOLAS KULISH
Greek authorities sought to shield Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany
from protesters angered by painful austerity measures during a visit to
Athens aimed at showing solidarity with the country.
"ATHENS — Venturing into the most hostile territory in Europe, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany
visited Athens on Tuesday, telling Greeks that she understood their
suffering but urging the country to stay the course on reforms and
budget cuts. But even as Ms. Merkel said that she had come as a “good friend and a
real partner,” not a “taskmaster or teacher to give grades,” the
approximately 40,000 Greeks who took to the streets in protest (a rather
modest number, by Greek standards) treated the visit as a provocation
by the arch-nemesis in the euro crisis whose austerity medicine is
obliterating the Greek middle class.
Some banners read “Don’t cry for us Mrs. Merkel” and “Merkel, you are
not welcome here.” A small group of protesters burned a flag bearing the
Nazi swastika, while a handful of protesters dressed in Nazi-style
uniforms drew cheers of approval as they rode a small vehicle past a
police cordon.
Some 7,000 police officers, many brought to the capital from the
provinces for the day, were on standby, along with rooftop snipers.
“This is pure provocation, we have to answer back,” a nurse, Christina
Amanti, 37, said about Ms. Merkel’s visit. “It’s like she’s visiting her
protectorate. What’s she going to do, pat us on the back and tell us to
keep getting poorer, that it’s good for us?”
Ms. Merkel came to Athens, a city on security lockdown for the visit, to
offer support to the coalition government of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras. It is struggling to agree on a $17 billion austerity package demanded by Greece’s
troika of foreign lenders — the European Commission, the European
Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund — as a precondition for
releasing a $40 billion installment of aid that the country needs to
meet expenses.
Ms. Merkel’s visit, the first by a major European leader since the start of the debt crisis
in 2009, capped her recent efforts to show a renewed dedication to
European solidarity after years of harsh words about Greece and Europe’s
other laggard economies.
Her trip also seemed to signify the dawning realization in Berlin that
as nettlesome as the current leaders of southern Europe may have been at
times, Mario Monti in Italy, Mariano Rajoy in Spain and Mr. Samaras in
Greece are the most amenable interlocutors she is ever going to have to
work with.
The debt crisis has brought down governments in Ireland, Italy, Portugal
and Spain, but it has radically transformed the political landscape
here in Greece. In two destabilizing rounds of elections in May and June
that eventually yielded Mr. Samaras’s coalition, the centrist parties
saw their historic support plummet while a leftist opposition party
surged and neo-Nazis entered Parliament.
“It’s the outcome of the June 17 elections, the perception that this is
the best government you can get under the current circumstances,” said
Janis A. Emmanouilidis, a senior analyst at the European Policy Center.
In recent months, Ms. Merkel — who is also facing growing criticism
within Germany over Greece, a year ahead of her own election — has come
to recognize “the geostrategic importance, what would happen if the
situation would deteriorate,” Mr. Emmanouilidis said. That includes a
host of “potential domino effects” related to European security, the
common market and the entire project of European integration.
“Going there is the right thing to do, even if you have negative
pictures from Athens,” Mr. Emmanouilidis added. “You need to face it
head on and not pretend it’s not as bad as it is.”
Ms. Merkel seemed to echo that thinking in her remarks on Tuesday. “It
is in our common interest that we in Europe once again win back our
credibility in Europe and show that in the euro zone we can solve our
problems together,” she said at a joint news conference with Mr.
Samaras, as tens of thousands of demonstrators marched outside
Parliament nearby, some scuffling with police officers who fired back
tear gas.
The Greek prime minister said Ms. Merkel’s visit had “broken our
international isolation” and “turned a new page in the relations of
Greece and Germany,” adding that it also helped diminish fears that
Greece might exit the euro. “Everyone who has bet on Greece’s collapse
and that Europe will be badly hurt will lose this bet,” he said.
But many Greeks are extremely skeptical about Germany’s intentions.
“There’s no united Europe; there’s the Europe of Germany,” said Irene
Sikiaridi-Krokou, 59, a retired airline hostess and supporter of the
leftist Syriza party, as she stood outside Parliament with a Greek flag
draped over her shoulders.
After three years of grinding austerity, Greece’s gross domestic product
has shrunk by 25 percent. Unemployment is now at 50 percent for young
people and 24 percent over all, while vital services like health care
have faltered following round after round of cuts.
“In three years they have destroyed a nation,” said Maria Choussakou,
59, a former high school teacher of ancient Greek who said she had been
forced into early retirement. “We were middle class, now we’re
impoverished.”
At the news conference, Ms. Merkel acknowledged the “suffering” Greece
was facing. But she encouraged the country to continue on its path of
structural reforms. “Much has been achieved, much has been demanded of
the Greek people,” she said. “I am deeply convinced that it’s going to
be worthwhile.”
But many Greeks have lost faith in Europe’s words. “It’s just spin, it
means nothing,” said Vassiliki Tsitsopoulos, a literature professor who
attended Tuesday’s demonstration. “It’s never been worse, it’s just
going to get worse.”
“We’re just keeping up appearances,” Ms. Tsitsopoulos added. “Including
the demonstrators. At this point, we’re part of the scenery.”
Germany Pushes to Avoid Bailout for Spain
Finance
minister tells his colleagues in the euro zone that Madrid is making
progress on overhauls and doesn't need an aid program at this time.
October 9, 2012, Tuesday
Fat chance.
The only way I see Spain avoiding a bailout is a restructure of their bankruptcy laws. Spain is insolvent as long as they try to carry bad private debt on the Spanish budget. Austerity equals depression.
I see that AoL is pushing their registry repair. I am unhappy with AoL and would just as soon not use their service. AoL is far too intertwined with Microsoft. I have been using FireFox on my Microsoft Operating systems.
It does not get on well with AVG, based in The Netherlands but allowing FireFox from Mozilla.org to update after installing AVG Free Basic without the Yahoo tool bar (uncheck a box in the custom install) works for me.
AVG has a nice registry cleaner that is free to use once.
Linux does without a registry cleaner.
I have not yet figured out Fedora. I may have to spend time with a manual.
Mandriva 10.2 running with the updates and the Gnome desk top is serving me well. This is getting to be old hardware.
I will run a printer. Ink I can buy at Microcenter. I sent the ink add to saved mail.
I always watch the snail mail. It is really not bad if the address is known.
.
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