Antonis Samaras: „Die griechische Demokratie steht vor ihrer größten Herausforderung“

HANDELSBLATT: Exclusiv – Er findet dramatische Worte: Griechenlands Ministerpräsident Antonis Samaras vergleicht die Situation seines Landes mit der Weimarer Republik und warnt vor den Auswirkungen der Arbeitslosigkeit für die Demokratie.

Athen. Der griechische Ministerpräsident Antonis Samaras hat in dramatischen Worten vor den Folgen einer weiteren Verschlechterung der wirtschaftlichen und sozialen Lage seines Landes gewarnt. In einem Interview mit dem „Handelsblatt“ verglich Samaras die Situation seines Landes mit der Weimarer Republik. „Die griechische Demokratie steht vor ihrer vielleicht größten Herausforderung“, sagte der Regierungschef.

Der Zusammenhalt der griechischen Gesellschaft sei durch die „steigende Arbeitslosigkeit gefährdet, so wie es gegen Ende der Weimarer Republik in Deutschland war“. Die Gesellschaft „als Ganzes“ sei bedroht durch Populisten der extremen Linken und „durch etwas, das es in unserem Land noch nie zuvor gegeben hat: den Aufstieg einer rechtsextremistischen, man könnte sagen faschistischen, Neonazi-Partei“. Diese sei in Umfragen bereits die „drittstärkste politische Kraft in Griechenland, Tendenz wachsend“. » | gst/ghö/mina | Freitag, 05. Oktober 2012

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Germany and France Turn Screw on Greece over Austerity Plans

THE GUARDIAN: Greek PM Antonis Samaras to be told to stick to hardline reforms to stay in eurozone as Berlin rejects plea for more time

Germany and France have ratcheted up the pressure on the Greek government by insisting that Athens stick to its hardline austerity plans in order to remain a member of the eurozone.

Before meetings with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, in Berlin on Friday and the French president, François Hollande, in Paris on Saturday, the Greek prime minister, Antonis Samaras, was given little hope that the two biggest EU economies were prepared to soften their approach.

Hollande, speaking at a meeting with Merkel in Berlin on Thursday night, said he wanted Greece to remain in the single currency but that the recession-stricken country had to carry out the reforms it had promised.

Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany's finance minister, flatly rejected Samaras's plea that Greece be given two extra years to put its finances back on track.

A decision on whether Athens should be allowed more time will be taken next month by the "troika" – the European Central Bank, the EU and the International Monetary Fund – but Schäuble said it was only six months ago that a second package of help had been provided.

"You cannot just say after half a year, all of that is not enough, because then you will never win the confidence of financial markets," he said on Germany's SWR radio. » | Larry Elliott, economics editor | Thursday, August 23, 2012

Debt Crisis: Greek Economy Is In a 'Great Depression' Says Samaras

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Greece is in a "Great Depression" similar to the American one in the 1930s, the country's Prime Minister Antonis Samaras told former US President Bill Clinton on Sunday.

Mr Samaras's comments come two days before a team of Greece's debt inspectors arrive in Athens to push for further austerity measures if the debt-laden country wants to qualify for further rescue payments and avoid a chaotic default.

Athens wants to soften the terms of a €130bn euro bailout agreed last March with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, to soften their impact on an economy going through its worst post-war recession.

Greek GDP is expected by the end of this to have shrunk by about a fifth in five consecutive years of recession since 2008, hammered by tax hikes, spending cuts and wage reductions required by two EU/IMF bailouts. Unemployment climbed to a record 22.6pc in the first quarter.

"You had the Great Depression in the United States," Samaras told Clinton, who was visiting Greece as part of a delegation of Greek-American businessmen. "This is exactly what we're going through in Greece - it's our version of the Great Depression." » | Source: Reuters | Sunday, July 22, 2012