Melancholy and nagging in PASOK

The 2011 budget is voted in an unprecedented heavy climate for a government, midnight today, as ministers and congressmen of PASOK are firing at will at the politics and the handling of the situation by the economy team, even questioning the orders of the Troika, which are implemented to the letter.

The heavy criticism received as to the budget, personally by the minister of Finance Giorgos Papakonstantinou and by the government, have troubled Maksimou, which is impatiently awaiting today’s’ voting to end, at least for the time being, the torment of the last days.  

It is significant that for the first time there was a serious discussion with the opposition in the cabinet and finally a decision was reached to complete the opening up of closed professions in two phases and within a period of six months.

The relevant bill will be submitted after the holidays and the first instances are expected to be those for the professions of lawyers, pharmacists, notaries, bailiffs, accountants, geotechnicians, architects, engineers and dentists.

Some members complained about the lack of dialogue on this issue – most distinctively Haris Kastanidis – while many ministers did not hide their fear over a possible social uprising.

The problem, however, is that until March the government must meet certain commitments towards the troika, and particularly to show that it does not calculate the political cost.

Obviously, ministers of PASOK saw this coming dead end, and targeted the government from the parliamentary stand. Vaso Papandreou assessed that the recipe followed by the economy team will fail, Kostas Kartalis noted that «PASOK has sold its soul» while Dimitris Kremastinos foresaw that we will eventually have an ecumenical government.