Papandreou calling all leaders

All the opposition party leaders have arranged to meet with Prime Minister George Papandreou, as the latter announced today in Parliament. The meeting will occur prior to the - critical for Greece - high-level conference of Brussels.

There was a fiery disagreement today between the Prime Minister and the opposition leaders, in reference to the harsh government measures.

Mr. Tsipras spoke about the condescending treatment of the Greek parliament by Mr. Strauss Khan and Oli Ren, stating that “they came in a domineering manner, as if addressing their servants, and this cannot be accepted”. Mr. Papandreou replied “you can comment on the reasons they came here and not their arrival itself, comment on the chaos we received as a government”.

 Mr. Tsipras continued in an intense tone “You are a government of minions and you have surrendered…the only thing that interests you is to please the representatives of capital, in Greece and here. Your government is lethal for the future of Greece and Europe. You brought the IMF  and the working conditions of Latin America into Europe. The sooner your government loses power, the faster this Greek and European decay will stop.”

The Prime Minister replied “We are fighting this and you need to respect it. It is not PASOK that submitted Greece to supervision. It has been under cautious supervision twice due to the decisions of Nea Dimokratia. We are trying to get the country out of this supervision.

Mr. Karatzaferis also accused the Prime Minister and so did Mrs Papariga, who blamed the government “for a downhill course with no end in sight” and said “the people will stone you for your politics”. The Prime Minister ended the argument by saying that the main concern of the government is work opportunities. We either save businesses from closing down, or companies will start to dismiss staff or close down. Our priority is to save the work places and have the fewest loss possible when we emerge from the tunnel”.