New Statesman - Papandreou and the one trillion euro question
reeks are hoping for two things: leadership and a miracle.
Columns of the Parthenon temple are seen behind an EU flag in Athens, 4 November 2011. Credit: Getty Images
It is not often that a prime minister stands up to make a speech to his party’s MPs only to have his finance minister, and second in command in the party ranks, follow up by saying the exact opposite. That kind of political theatre takes epic dimensions when it happens as the country is on the verge of collapse.
But that is the state of Greek politics as we await a confidence vote that will determine the PM’s fate. He seems isolated, having lost the trust of his people, the opposition, his party and his EU peers in the European Council.
Domestically George Papandreou has to deal with an internal rebellion in his own party, unhappy not just about the way he announced a referendum but mostly for having to lend their support to hugely unpopular austerity measures that has gained them the fury of the electorate.
Papandreou also has to deal with an opposition that has been playing politics throughout the process, refusing to provide him with political support in the hope they can force his government to collapse.
In the international scene, his referendum move has cost him all legitimacy with his EU partners, forcing them to accept for the first time that Greece leaving the euro is a very real possibility indeed.
So what happens now? A lot depends on the kind of deal Papandreou is able to strike with his own party and the opposition.
Many in the ruling Pasok want to see him go, not least his finance minister Evangelos Venizelos. The same goes for the New Democracy opposition. They have in the past 24 hours entertained the notion of a grand coalition government only to withdraw their support for such a notion hours later and suggest a government of technocrats to ratify the new bail-out package before calling for elections.
They are adamant not to offer any political cover to the PM and they want to ensure that he is nowhere near a new government.
Having said that the outcome of tonight’s confidence vote is not set in stone yet. Papandreou might just survive, in which case the question is whether he will try to get the bail-out plan through parliament with the support of his party alone, pursue a coalition government that the opposition does not want or call an election.
The problem is that nobody knows whether an election will produce a conclusive result.