Athens fears Merkel’s hard stance

The Greek government is hanging on Merkel’s every word as today’s meeting with Giorgos Papandreou is very crucial for EU developments regarding the recession and mainly the attitude towards our country, which is anxiously awaiting the rescue package.

Merkel is in an extremely tight spot after the defeat of her party in Hamburg, and this makes Greece very anxious. Government sources are not hiding their pessimism about the results of the meeting, but also about the climate that might develop in view of the emergency summit on March 11 and the summit on March 25. 

All this is unfolding at a time when new intra-governmental problems keep arising continuously, while skepticism over the people's reaction increases. Already at Maximou they seem totally surprised by the incidental speech of the PM on Monday night at Humboldt University, during which he was booed by a group of students. 

Colleagues of the PM were surprised by the fact but this did not happen with ministers too, who have been snitching on one another. Most criticism goes towards Finance minister Papakonstantinou for the wreck of the National-Alpha negotiations, while other ministers are speaking of lack of coordination within the government, joined by Pangalos who made relevant statements. 

The meetings in Berlin 

But Papandreou is trying to remain undistracted in order to accomplish his international contacts without further problems . In Berlin, before the afternoon meeting with Merkel, he will have separate meetings with the President of the Social Democratic party SPD, Sigmar Gabriel and the parliamentary party spokesman Frank-Walter Steinmeier, theCo-Chairman of the Greens, Cem Özdemir, Foreign Minister and Chairman of the Liberal Party (FDP), Guido Westerwelle, and the other Co-Chairman of the Greens, Claudia Rot. 

Then it’s Finland 

On Wednesday, Papandreou will travel to Helsinki, where he is meeting with his Finnish counterpart Mari Kiviniemi, the chairman of Parliament Sauli Niinisto, who will present the Greek PM to the House of Parliament, as well as the chairman of the Social Democratic Party, Jutta Urpilainen. 

Both Germany and Finland were the two countries with the toughest stance at the last summit regarding the Competitiveness Pact.