Stournaras Set To Take The Fall

Still reeling from his loss to the major opposition Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) in European Parliament elections, Prime Minister and New Democracy Conservative leader Antonis Samaras is reportedly going to jettison Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras, who was his point man in talks with international lenders. Stournaras would be the most visible casualty of New Democracy’s showing, in which the party finished 3.8 percent behind SYRIZA, which has opposed the austerity measures the government has imposed in return for two bailouts of 240 billion euros ($327 billion) from the Troika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB). It had bee reported that Stournaras might be elevated to the position of Governor of the Bank of Greece, to replace Giorgos Provopoulos, whose term is coming to an end, and who had incorrectly predicted for several consecutive years that the country was poised for a recovery. The Athens-Macedonia News Agency (AMNA) said that sources close to Stournaras denied reports that he had expressed displeasure about plans to remove him from his post as part of a cabinet reshuffle aimed at reviving the government’s fortunes in the wake of mixed results. “The minister is going about his work as normal at the ministry,” the sources told AMNA. Earlier reports had suggested that Stournaras would be sacrificed due to his unpopularity with voters. He had been unrepentant about the need for pay cuts, tax hikes, slashed pensions and worker firings and, as a technocrat, had shown little sympathy for the plight of Greek affected by them. AMNA then published comments from Stournaras’s aides that claimed the minister was unhappy at being the target of criticism from within the government. It had been reported previously that Samaras’ coalition partner Evangelos Venizelos – who was finance minister in a previous Socialist government – wanted Stournaras out. Samaras was in Brussels on May 27 for an EU leaders’ summit. “In order to reform Europe we need competitiveness, job creation… and solidarity between member states,” he said, without elaborating. Venizelos wants to turn the tables on SYRIZA, which had proposed eliminating the 50-seat bonus given to parties tht finish first in national elections, as New Democracy did in 2012. With SYRIZA believing it could win the next national elections, Venizelos now says its idea to scrap or reduce the bonus is a good idea, especially with PASOK, even attached to the new center-left alliance Elia, or Olive Tree, getting only 8 percent in the EU elections. Several leftist lawmakers including spokesman Panos Skourletis said the party would be prepared to agree to a change in the electoral law as long as it is for proportional representation. Leftist SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras on May 28 was expected to repeat his demand for early national elections based on the EU results, a notion already rejected by the government, whose term doesn’t run out until 2016. In his scheduled speech before industrialists at the general assembly of the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises, Tsipras is expected to stress that the government’s majority is based on an outdated system and that its economic policies have failed. If he comes to power, Tsipras said he would force the Troika to revise the terms of the loans – which Samaras also wants to do – or would renege on them, which would leave Greece bankrupt. He hasn’t explained where he would get the money to run the government.  

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