Venizelos seeks backing for EU deal - The Best from Greece

The finance minister appealed to citizens and opposition parties on Monday to back austerity measures or face being cut off by international lenders, after a poll showed Greeks opposed last week's EU rescue deal.

 

Evangelos Venizelos said an agreement clinched at a summit in Brussels to secure a fresh 130bn euros in EU/IMF funding and a 50 percent reduction in the country’s 200bn euros of privately-held debt must be swiftly implemented.

 

"This will not be feasible without a united internal front, without Greek citizens backing the efforts of the government and the country," Venizelos told Ta Neanewspaper.

 

"If we do not achieve the execution of the 2011 budget, if we do not start implementing the 2012 budget, everything will be in doubt again. There won't be any new programme," he said.

 

An opinion poll published by To Vima newspaper on Saturday showed that most Greeks have responded negatively towards the EU package to rescue Greece from default. Around half said the agreement jeopardised national sovereignty.

 

Venizelos said fresh elections in the midst of the reforms process would deal a blow to Greece's credibility with its EU partners and international markets. He accused New Democracy of placing electoral interests above the good of the country.

 

"In the name of whom can there be a negative vote when, for the first time, the parliament will have the chance to decide a cut and not a rise in the public debt?" Venizelos said.

 

"We can succeed as long as we are serious, united, responsible and aware of the situation and the history."

 

The minister said the main losers under the last week's agreement would be bankers, who would see the value of their Greek debt holdings slashed, not ordinary Greeks.

 

"But between the nation and the banks, the nation must come first," Venizelos said, suggesting it would be necessary for the state to take a temporary stake in Greek banks to recapitalise them after the haircut. "We do not want to alter the private nature of the banks but we want the state to emerge with gains from capitalising the banks."

 

The minister said that those who said that the October 26-27 decisions set a limit to Greece's sovereignty were demagogic.

 

"The ownership of the whole procedures and the responsibility for their implementation lies with the Greek government and the Greek parliament," he said. (Reuters)