Greek PM seeks EU debt pledge as protests grow
Greece’s prime minister, seeking a concrete pledge of European support to ease his country’s debt crisis, will meet a European Union finance chief and German chancellor Angela Merkel today.
George Papandreou was travelling to Luxembourg and Berlin after warning that Greece could go outside the EU and request financial help from the International Monetary Fund.
Athens remains under pressure from high borrowing rates and a surge of union protests against new austerity measures.
Strikes today are set to ground flights for four hours and shut schools and most public services.
Mr Papandreou announced the tough new spending cuts this week and insists Greece is not seeking bailout money from the EU, but a public commitment to a financial rescue plan that would reassure markets.
Greece held a successful bond sale yesterday, raising €4.97bn but on a punishing yield of 6.3%.
The sale was seen as a key test of Greece’s ability to avoid a disastrous debt default and stem a financial crisis that has shaken the European Union.
Today’s strikes are planned as parliament is to vote on the €4.75bn austerity package that will increase taxes and slash pay for public sector workers by up to 8%.
Flights will be grounded between 10am and 2pm Irish time, while union protests will also halt public transport services, and leave hospitals running on emergency staff.
Protest rallies are planned in Athens and other Greek cities to demand that the government takes back some of the measures.
“We must wage a long and effective struggle,” said Yiannis Panagopoulos, the leader of Greece’s largest union, the GSEE. “The (new) measures are one-sided and socially unjust.”
Mr Papandreou will meet the head of an informal group of eurozone finance ministers, Luxembourg prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker, before travelling on to Berlin for talks with Mrs Merkel.
He will also discuss the debt crisis with French president Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris on Sunday, and meet US president Barack Obama on March 9 in Washington.
