3 billion missing to close the deal

On Monday morning Lucas Papademos will see the Troika representatives, and the party leaders will meet in the afternoon. George Papandreou will ask for a teleconference with the heads of the EU, the ECB and the IMF; anything to show negotiation attempts while the leaders are doing what they can to convey the ultimatum to the people. “There is a plan to take us out of the euro” said Greek commissioner Maria Damanaki in a Sunday newspaper. “Plan a we sign, plan b we default”, Papandreou told the political council of PASOK. The leaders asked Papademos to prepare a report about the effect of default on society. How else can they tell the people and their parliamentary groups about the package they agreed upon on Sunday?

-    public sector wage cuts at 22%, all wages not just the minimum ones
-    supplementary pension cuts and layoffs in the public sector
-    elimination of collective contracts in SOEs, and of all the sectorals
-    retaining bonuses and special wage lists until the next review in June
-    new collection measures of 3bil euros, yet to be defined. The Troika wants to define them and include them in the text to be signed by the leaders
-    strengthening of banks with common shares as exchange, but without the public appointing administrations

Following all this, it is not surprising that Papandreou and Karatzaferis are trying to convince Antonis Samaras to agree to extend the life of the coalition government for one year. "How would we go to the neighborhoods?" PASOK members wonder. Papandreou’s decision to convene the political council at midnight on Sunday caused the reaction of many members of the body, discerning an attempt to make everybody responsible.