Negotiations marathon with the Troika

By Kostis Plantzos

The government and the Troika are consumed in a game of words and impressions so as not to send the wrong messages to the international markets and the interior of the country.

As the auditors and audited could not agree until late Thursday on the key words concerning the conclusion of the inspections, its preparation and announcement was postponed for a while. So the press conference that was programmed for Friday morning was postponed, too.

According to sources, the auditors are trying to agree amongst themselves, but also with the government, on the basic points/ worries about the program without conveying them to citizens and investors. Furthermore, the economy team is thinking that it can use the negotiations communicatively o show that it had to give a battle to avoid the rough measures the Troika wanted to implement.

The friction points:

-   The future of corporate contracts and the reductions of wages in the private sector. On this, the government secured a delay of 3-6 months at least.
-   The cuts to supplementary pensions, which will also wait until the summer.

-   The austerity measures, postponed for May or June so that the social and inter-party dialogue will come first.
-   The future of privatizations and mergers in banks (especially those of the Agricultural Bank and PostBank).
 
Besides the joint announcement by the auditors (possibly Friday afternoon), they will prepare three different reviews of these issues to be sent to Brussels, Frankfurt and Washington respectively.