10:45 – 3 speeches, 3 different opinions, 3 key players and the 3 scenarios for Mr. Papandreou

Greek party: Key players and their “flexible ideas”

George Papandreou belongs to one of the 3 families that has been ruling Greece over the last decades. It looks like he will not manage to preserve his family’s legacy, as he received it from his grandfather and father.

Yesterday, lots of Greek politicians were “very flexible”:

Vagelis Venizelos

·         Early in the morning, Mr. Vagelis Venizelos, Minister of Economy and Vice President of the government, announced that he does not agree with the idea of a referendum regarding Greeks’ desire to stay in the Eurozone or not. This is the same gentleman that had said in Parliament  just two days ago that “it is good to make this referendum, in order for the Greeks to decide if they want to stay in the Eurozone or not”.

·         After this announcement, members of Parliament who are friends of his started speaking to the media, saying that they withdraw their confidence in the government.

·         But after a few hours the Minister changed strategies. He backed the Prime Minister, practically correlating himself with him.

·         Tonight we will find out if his friends – members of Parliament who declared that “George Papandreou is history” will stick to their word or if they will change opinion once more.

·         His ideal scenario: Mr. Papandreou gets the majority in Parliament tonight and then to step out, in order for him to lead the party.

·         He is the “key” to everything we will witness tonight.

Antonis Samaras

·         The leader of the biggest opposing party changed  his strategy 100% yesterday.

·         After the statements of “Merkozy” (Merkel – Sarkozy) and the risk for Greece to go bankrupt in a very short time, he accepted to sign the agreement with the troika. I remind you that his refusal to sign it made the Prime Minister speak about a referendum.

·         But he stated his terms: “I sign the agreement, then immediately we form a new government together with other parties. This government will finish the negotiations for the details of the agreement and once everything is signed, it will resign and we will go to elections”.

·         So Mr. Samaras is willing to sign, but he does not accept the idea of Mr. Papandreou continuing as Prime Minister.

·         He wants to make sure that he will not “burn” his (almost sure) future as prime Minister after tonight.

George Papandreou

·         He took back the referendum, once he saw Mr. Samaras accepting to sign the agreement.

·         He lost the majority during the first part of the day, this is why he headed to the summit of ministers and announced that he will start the procedures for a new government, “to save the country”.

·         He said in public that more or less “the referendum was an argument to force Mr. Samaras to accept the agreement”. (something like: “This is how I trapped him)

·         He was reported to have sent two representatives of his, in order for them to negotiate with two representatives of Mr. Samaras for a new government.

·         After the discussion with his ministers, he went to speak to the socialist members of Parliament. There, he told them that he will get the vote of confidence and he will continue in his position, especially now that the opposition accepts to sign.

·         After his speech there, the minister of education Mrs. Anna Diamantopoulou stood up and told him: “but you promised us in the summit of ministers that you will start the procedures for a government that will save the country”. His reply: “We are also a government that wants to save the country”. (so he took it back…)

·         After this incident, Mr. Venizelos presented the 10 things that Greece needs to do in order to exit the actual crisis. Right after, one of the oldest members of Parliament, Mrs. Vaso Papandreou (they are not relatives), demanded to speak and told the prime minister: “You have lost your connection with reality” (the Greek expression: “you are out of place and time”).

·         Then, Mr. Papandreou changed opinion again and in his speech in the Parliament he said that he will start the procedures for a new government.

·         No one knows what he will finally decide today. Yesterday he moved from “no” to “yes”, then back to “no” and then finally “yes” to a new government without him.

At the same time, the G20 summit at Cannes was reported to discuss the scenario of Greece leaving the Eurozone…

Something good for Greece: The referendum is withdrawn in any case; almost 80% of the members of Parliament will vote the agreement with troika, so the country will normally avoid the risk of uncontrolled bankruptcy.

The last hours of Mr. George Papandreou as prime minister of Greece (the 3 scenarios)

Where do we stand now, after yesterday’s party time?

·         Almost everyone is confused.

·         Mr Papandreou said 3 different things in 3 different speeches, in just a few hours’ time.

·         Normally, today he should start the procedure for a new government “to save the country”, together with the opposition.

·         If this happens, his people will give him the vote of confidence, in order for him to leave avoiding the humiliation to see his government falling.

·         But some others are afraid that he might get the vote of confidence and then use Mr. Samaras’ agreement in order to remain Prime Minister.

·         Many socialist members of parliament have said very bad things about him. How are they going to vote for him tonight?

The 3 scenarios are:

“Logical” scenario: Mr. Papandreou gets the vote of confidence, he announces that he resigns and assigns to his people to prepare a new government without him being Prime Minister.

“Possible” scenario: Mr. Papandreou fails to get the vote of confidence, so he falls stating that “media owners and other powerful people prevented me from saving the country”. The President of Democracy will try to give the mandate to someone else, but most possibly Greece will head to early elections.

“Not impossible” scenario: Mr. Papandreou gets the vote of confidence, but he decides to stay. He will try to force the opposition to sign the agreement with troika and agree to him remaining in office, “in order to make sure that the procedure will be concluded without problems”.

UPDATE:

At 10.40: The independent member of Parliament, Mrs. Elsa Papadimitriou (who voted once for THE Papandreou government and she was expected to vote again) just stated that she will not vote for Mr. Papandreou, if he does not announce officially and clearly that starting with Saturday he will start the procedures for a new coalition government to save the country.

On Monday: The Greek… party hides the REAL problems that knock at our door: Italy and Spain get ready to enter the stage…