No polls before Easter? - The Best from Greece

The postponement of parliamentary elections well beyond the” indicative” deadline of February 19 set for the “transitional” government of Lucas Papademos appeared very likely on Friday, following remarks by Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos.

 

Speaking at a cabinet meeting on Thursday, Venizelos presented a very tight timeline for the present government’s agenda regarding commitments to its creditors.

 

He said that negotiations about the new loan agreement for the country’s second bailout package cannot begin before the release of the 8bn euro tranche that has been delayed for three months.

“The completion of the talks with the troika and the signing of the new loan pact will take place around January 10-15,” Venizelos noted.

 

But then, he went on to say that negotiations with private bondholders (PSI) about the 50 percent writedown on Greek debt would only begin after the signing of the loan agreement.

 

“The PSI negotiations are expected to last 50-60 days, which means that – if everything goes well – the process will not be completed before mid-March at the earliest,” said Venizelos.

 

Since the PSI negotiations will have to be followed by three more weeks of “voluntary” subscription to the bond exchange deal, it is unlikely that elections will be called before April 2012.

 

It is worth noting, however, that Venizelos was supposed to have already begun PSI negotiations earlier this month in order to finish the “haircut” process by Christmas or early January at the latest, to include the PSI deal in the new bailout loan agreement.

 

But now the order of the agenda has been reversed for reasons that remain to be explained.