They are selling OTE and Postbank, and people in the public sector will be laid off

Members of the government are expecting dramatic tones in today’s cabinet meeting, and in private conversations are expressing their worries about the course of our country, especially in the case of failure to receive the 5th installment from the Troika.

“He hasn’t spoken to most of us and I don’t know whether he has talked to anyone about the meeting today”, says a top-ranking minister to protothema.gr, confessing his expectation for a different Papandreou, compared to his recent stance at the Economist conference for example.

Besides, the PM himself clearly said in his interview on the Sunday edition of “Ethnos”: “Non payment of the 5th installment would mean bankruptcy”.

According to credible sources, the PM will address the prospect of immediate privatizations, among which OTE and Postbank should be considered as definite prospects.

In addition, Papandreou will return to the issue of making public workers redundant and on Wednesday, the ministers are expected to refer to specific public entities, which will have to let employees go.

It is certain that he will insist on the request for consent by the other parties, at a moment when even among the members of PASOK, such a thing remains highly doubtful.

Lately, three top government officials, Andreas Loverdos, Evangelos Venizelos and Theodoros Pangalos, have referred to the need to vote for the mid-term plan or other legislation with 180 votes.
 
Elections as the bogeyman

However, many PASOK MPs cannot give a direct answer as to whether they will vote for the mid-term plan or not. And until its publication, those who express their objections are very few.

A few of the mid-term plan’s basic sections will be announced today and discussed within the week at PASOK’s PG meeting and then in the parliamentary Committee on Economic Affairs. it will be preceded by Papandreou’s meetings with opposition leaders, except Aleka Papariga.

But the difficult consultation will be with members of the party, ministers and trade unionists alike.

Moreover, the government is expected to move directly to the deregulation of professions which, although voted for in parliament, has not been implemented, thus troubling the Troika as to whether the mid-term plan (if voted for) will be successfully implemented.

So, there will be an attempt to regenerate more than 100 professions and many are predicting that the "hot" summer of 2010 will look like an oasis compared to the summer ahead.