Antonis Samaras and Giorgios Papandreou

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Antonis Samaras and Giorgios Papandreou

The Greek Prime Minister Georgios Papandreou on Thursday announced that the referendum on the bailout package was being called off, a few days after he had said that the Greek people had the right to decide on the new debt deal. As the European countries reacted angrily and the stock markets went down at the perspective of the annulment of the deal with Greece, the PM decided otherwise, and in a swift move renounced the referendum.
The most important reason he offered for this renewed position was that the opposition was also favoring the deal with the financial troika, composed of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
The calling off of the referendum did not end the scandal in Greece, as some members of his party rebelled against him, and so did some important figures of the opposition. The resignation of the prime minister was requested and there are reports that he offered to resign, as there are other reports that say he denied having said so.
In an address to the Socialist party’ central committee, Papandreou said there was no need for a referendum as long as the New Democracy party, the leading party in the opposition, agreed for part of the Greek debt to be erased in exchange for continuing the austerity programs.
His remarks were made after Antonis Samaras, leader of the New Democracy party, accused him of deception. Papandreou said he was not clinging to the ministerial office and said that in case he received a confidence vote on Friday in the parliament he was willing to step down in order for a national unity government to be established.
The decision to call the referendum off comes after the European leaders gave Greece an ultimatum on whether they wanted to continue to remain a part of the European Union and of the euro zone.
Now that the idea of the referendum is no more in play, at the expense of democracy itself, some might say, the parliament is the one to offer their support to the deal proposed by European countries on October 26.
The people of Greece seem to have no faith in either party, and in their opinion whether Papandreou resigns or Samaras takes over the things will not change much. They accuse them all of corruption, and of being the main responsible for the disaster of the country.
The tension continues as the opposition leader Antonis Samaras announced that there would be no negotiation about a unity government as long as Papandreou continues to be the prime minister of the country.
The same situation happened a few months ago, when the prime minister proposed the idea of unity government. Sources in the New Democracy said that their party would favor the idea of a caretaker government until elections can be set in six months.
Samaras accused the prime minister of having renounced the idea of referendum only after the European leaders have given him an ultimatum. The opposition leader denied that the motif of the public consultation idea would have been to apply pressure on his party to support the bailout plan. Samaras reminded that his party had thrown its support behind the plan as soon as October 27.
Analysts consider that the leaders of the main political parties are entrenched in some sort of political poker game which will determine the support the European plan will have in their country.

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