THIS is what the Greek people think of “austerity”… the present coalition isn’t long for this world, but it’ll last long enough to deny the Republicans victory in November (the GOP needs European instability to drive an American downturn, but that’s not going to happen now).
______________________________
On Thursday night, the newly-elected Greek government took the oath of office in Athens. The ministers swore in the name of the Holy Trinity on the Gospel to abide by the constitution and laws, and to serve the interests of the Greek people. The tardiness of the new Minister of Justice, Anthony Rupakotisa, who arrived at the presidential palace half an hour late, delayed the ceremony. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras took office. Three members of the government… Finance Minister Vassilis Rapanos and his two deputies, Christos Staikuras and Georgios Mavraganis… shall take the oath later, as their counterparts from the previous interim cabinet represented Greece at a meeting of the Eurogroup and, accordingly, can’t resign yet.
The new cabinet is from the centre-right New Democracy (ND) (129 deputies in the 300-seat parliament) supported by the centre-left PASOK (33 deputies) and the Democratic Left Forces (DIMAR) (17 deputies). Despite the fact that ND has a plurality in Parliament, if PASOK and DIMAR deputies refused to support the government, it’d significantly weaken the position of the cabinet, especially if there were unpopular “reforms”. Earlier, media reports indicated that the new Cabinet of Greece declared that it plans to hold new talks with its EU/IMF creditors. The Samaras government considers its main objectives the fight against the crisis and keeping Greece in the Eurozone. The coalition cabinet’s planning to sit for its full constitutional term of four years. Previously, Greek coalition governments only sat for a transitional period, in order to steer the country through new parliamentary elections.
The Government contains 17 Ministers, 7 First Deputy Ministers, and 14 Deputy Ministers. Thirteen of its members were in previous ND governments. The new coalition carried out some changes in the names of ministries and government structure. The Ministry of the Merchant Fleet, the Ministry of Tourism, and the Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace reappeared as government structures. They merged the Ministries of Education and Culture and of Transportation and Development, and the Ministry of Citizen Protection returned to its traditional title of the Ministry of Public Order.
The full composition of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Greek government as follows:
- Prime Minister: Antonis Samaras
- Minister of State: Dimitris Stamatis,
- Government Spokesman: Simos Kedikoglu
- Minister of Administrative Reform and E-Government: Antonis Manitakis
- Minister of Internal Affairs: Evripidis Stylianidis
- Minister of Finance: Vasilis Rapanos
- Foreign Minister: Dimitris Avramopoulos
- Defence Minister: Panos Panayotopulos
- Minister of Development, Transport, And Communication Networks: Kostis Hadzidakis
- Minister of Merchant Fleet and the Aegean Sea: Costas Musurulis
- Minister of Environment, Energy, and Climate Change: Evangelos Liveratos
- Minister of Education, Culture, and Sports: Konstantinos Arvanitopulos
- Minister of Labour and Social Insurance: Yiannis Vrutsis
- Minister of Health: Andreas Likurendzos
- Agriculture Minister: Athanasios Tsavtaris
- Minister of Public Order: Nikos Dendias
- Minister of Justice, Transparency, and Human Rights: Anthony Rupakotis
- Minister of Tourism: Olga Kefaloyanni
- Minister of Macedonia and Thrace: Theodoros Karaoglu
******
Prime Minister Antonis Samaras reported that the newly-elected Greek government would start by reducing the salary of Cabinet Ministers. At the first meeting of his government after being sworn in Thursday evening, he said, “We’ll reduce the salary of Cabinet members by 30 percent. We also agreed to limit the use of official cars to the minimum necessary to carry out our duties”. He also called on ministers to speak to the press less and coordinate such appearances with his office, saying, “Don’t go on TV every day; there’s no reason to do that”. He also announced that henceforth all government meetings would be behind closed doors, even though Samaras’ predecessor Georgios Papandreou opened up meetings to the press.
The centre-right New Democracy (ND), the centre-left PASOK, and the moderate leftist DIMAR support the Samaras government. On Thursday, according to Samaras, a new era began in Greek politics, since the government is the first coalition formed with the goal of ruling the country, not merely holding power until a new election. He said, “We agreed on a broad common strategy on what’s needed to run the country. Our goal is to lead the country out of crisis and to justify the sacrifices made by the Greek people”.
21 June 2012
Aleksei Bogdanov
RIA-Novosti
http://ria.ru/world/20120621/678714117.html
http://ria.ru/world/20120621/678754449.html
Editor’s Note:
There’s an interesting wrinkle in all of this, ND and PASOK alone should have the deputies to form a government… 162 out of 300. However, it’s clear that not all of the deputies are enthused over the new arrangement… ergo, DIMAR, with 17 seats, firms the majority up to 179. Nevertheless, this smells “provisional”… and it may not last a year. Yet, it’ll last long enough to prolong the present stasis until after the US election in November. That’s what Wafflin’ Willy didn’t need… he needed a full-blown Eurozone crisis to sour the US economy. That’s not going to happen… ergo, the chances of Willy gaining the White House are slim to none. He’ll rack up a majority amongst rural white men over 45, and no one else.
That’s the way of it in our inter-related world.
APPENDIX
Greek Political Alignment prior to the May election, after the May Election, and at Present:
| |
2009 Vote
|
Seats
|
05.12 Vote
|
Seats
|
06.12 Vote
|
Seats
|
Percent change 2009 to 2012
|
| ND |
33.5
|
91
|
18.9
|
108
|
29.7
|
129
|
88.7
|
| PASOK |
44.0
|
160
|
13.2
|
41
|
12.3
|
33
|
28.0
|
| DIMAR |
—
|
—
|
6.1
|
19
|
6.3
|
17
|
—
|
| SYRIZA |
4.6
|
13
|
16.8
|
52
|
26.9
|
71
|
584.8
|
This is INTERESTING, and none of the major media outlets is covering this one adequately. Firstly, look at the 2009 vote… ND and PASOK took a combined 77.5 percent of the vote. In June 2012, they took 42 percent of the vote… less than a majority, and only 54.2 percent of their 2009 combined vote. ND had 88.7 percent of its ’09 vote, whilst PASOK had only 28 percent of its ’09 tally. In 2009, SYRIZA had only 6 percent of the ND/PASOK total; whilst in June 2012, it tallied 64 percent of their combined effort. When one considers that DIMAR is a schism from SYRIZA, one sees that the capitalist parties not only took a drubbing, it conceivably set up a realignment. Let’s look at it another way… in 2009, SRIZA garnered a vote that was 10.5 percent the PASOK total; in June 2012, SYRIZA won votes equal to 218.7 percent that of PASOK. That is, in 2009, SYRIZA won 10.5 percent of PASOK’s total. In June 2012, PASOK only racked up a vote 45.7 percent that of SYRIZA (even with the DIMAR defection).
It’s obvious… the Greeks are tired of the same ol’, same ol’… and they’re voting for SYRIZA in record numbers. PASOK and ND are deadly rivals… the only thing bringing them together is fear of SYRIZA. Fotis Kouvelis of DIMAR is an opportunist… he served as a minister in a ND/Left coalition cabinet in 1989. Indeed, the present arrangement bids fair to be a repeat of 1989… that cabinet only lasted four months. This time around, the stakes are higher, so, it’ll probably last until the turn of the year. However, that’ll be enough time for President Obama to win re-election. You see, the Eurozone is going to sail through some choppy seas, but the present Greek coalition means that won’t happen for the present, and, sadly for Wafflin’ Willy, he needs Eurozone disruption to win election. That’s not going to happen.
Remember, we live in an interconnected world.
BMD
New Greek Government Sworn In
Tags: Alexis Tsipras, Antonis Samaras, Athens, DIMAR, EU, European Union, Greece, Greek, Ministry of Citizen Protection, New Democracy, Panhellenic Socialist Movement, PASOK, political commentary, politics, Syriza
THIS is what the Greek people think of “austerity”… the present coalition isn’t long for this world, but it’ll last long enough to deny the Republicans victory in November (the GOP needs European instability to drive an American downturn, but that’s not going to happen now).
______________________________
On Thursday night, the newly-elected Greek government took the oath of office in Athens. The ministers swore in the name of the Holy Trinity on the Gospel to abide by the constitution and laws, and to serve the interests of the Greek people. The tardiness of the new Minister of Justice, Anthony Rupakotisa, who arrived at the presidential palace half an hour late, delayed the ceremony. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras took office. Three members of the government… Finance Minister Vassilis Rapanos and his two deputies, Christos Staikuras and Georgios Mavraganis… shall take the oath later, as their counterparts from the previous interim cabinet represented Greece at a meeting of the Eurogroup and, accordingly, can’t resign yet.
The new cabinet is from the centre-right New Democracy (ND) (129 deputies in the 300-seat parliament) supported by the centre-left PASOK (33 deputies) and the Democratic Left Forces (DIMAR) (17 deputies). Despite the fact that ND has a plurality in Parliament, if PASOK and DIMAR deputies refused to support the government, it’d significantly weaken the position of the cabinet, especially if there were unpopular “reforms”. Earlier, media reports indicated that the new Cabinet of Greece declared that it plans to hold new talks with its EU/IMF creditors. The Samaras government considers its main objectives the fight against the crisis and keeping Greece in the Eurozone. The coalition cabinet’s planning to sit for its full constitutional term of four years. Previously, Greek coalition governments only sat for a transitional period, in order to steer the country through new parliamentary elections.
The Government contains 17 Ministers, 7 First Deputy Ministers, and 14 Deputy Ministers. Thirteen of its members were in previous ND governments. The new coalition carried out some changes in the names of ministries and government structure. The Ministry of the Merchant Fleet, the Ministry of Tourism, and the Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace reappeared as government structures. They merged the Ministries of Education and Culture and of Transportation and Development, and the Ministry of Citizen Protection returned to its traditional title of the Ministry of Public Order.
The full composition of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Greek government as follows:
******
Prime Minister Antonis Samaras reported that the newly-elected Greek government would start by reducing the salary of Cabinet Ministers. At the first meeting of his government after being sworn in Thursday evening, he said, “We’ll reduce the salary of Cabinet members by 30 percent. We also agreed to limit the use of official cars to the minimum necessary to carry out our duties”. He also called on ministers to speak to the press less and coordinate such appearances with his office, saying, “Don’t go on TV every day; there’s no reason to do that”. He also announced that henceforth all government meetings would be behind closed doors, even though Samaras’ predecessor Georgios Papandreou opened up meetings to the press.
The centre-right New Democracy (ND), the centre-left PASOK, and the moderate leftist DIMAR support the Samaras government. On Thursday, according to Samaras, a new era began in Greek politics, since the government is the first coalition formed with the goal of ruling the country, not merely holding power until a new election. He said, “We agreed on a broad common strategy on what’s needed to run the country. Our goal is to lead the country out of crisis and to justify the sacrifices made by the Greek people”.
21 June 2012
Aleksei Bogdanov
RIA-Novosti
http://ria.ru/world/20120621/678714117.html
http://ria.ru/world/20120621/678754449.html
Editor’s Note:
There’s an interesting wrinkle in all of this, ND and PASOK alone should have the deputies to form a government… 162 out of 300. However, it’s clear that not all of the deputies are enthused over the new arrangement… ergo, DIMAR, with 17 seats, firms the majority up to 179. Nevertheless, this smells “provisional”… and it may not last a year. Yet, it’ll last long enough to prolong the present stasis until after the US election in November. That’s what Wafflin’ Willy didn’t need… he needed a full-blown Eurozone crisis to sour the US economy. That’s not going to happen… ergo, the chances of Willy gaining the White House are slim to none. He’ll rack up a majority amongst rural white men over 45, and no one else.
That’s the way of it in our inter-related world.
APPENDIX
Greek Political Alignment prior to the May election, after the May Election, and at Present:
2009 Vote
Seats
05.12 Vote
Seats
06.12 Vote
Seats
Percent change 2009 to 2012
33.5
91
18.9
108
29.7
129
88.7
44.0
160
13.2
41
12.3
33
28.0
—
—
6.1
19
6.3
17
—
4.6
13
16.8
52
26.9
71
584.8
This is INTERESTING, and none of the major media outlets is covering this one adequately. Firstly, look at the 2009 vote… ND and PASOK took a combined 77.5 percent of the vote. In June 2012, they took 42 percent of the vote… less than a majority, and only 54.2 percent of their 2009 combined vote. ND had 88.7 percent of its ’09 vote, whilst PASOK had only 28 percent of its ’09 tally. In 2009, SYRIZA had only 6 percent of the ND/PASOK total; whilst in June 2012, it tallied 64 percent of their combined effort. When one considers that DIMAR is a schism from SYRIZA, one sees that the capitalist parties not only took a drubbing, it conceivably set up a realignment. Let’s look at it another way… in 2009, SRIZA garnered a vote that was 10.5 percent the PASOK total; in June 2012, SYRIZA won votes equal to 218.7 percent that of PASOK. That is, in 2009, SYRIZA won 10.5 percent of PASOK’s total. In June 2012, PASOK only racked up a vote 45.7 percent that of SYRIZA (even with the DIMAR defection).
It’s obvious… the Greeks are tired of the same ol’, same ol’… and they’re voting for SYRIZA in record numbers. PASOK and ND are deadly rivals… the only thing bringing them together is fear of SYRIZA. Fotis Kouvelis of DIMAR is an opportunist… he served as a minister in a ND/Left coalition cabinet in 1989. Indeed, the present arrangement bids fair to be a repeat of 1989… that cabinet only lasted four months. This time around, the stakes are higher, so, it’ll probably last until the turn of the year. However, that’ll be enough time for President Obama to win re-election. You see, the Eurozone is going to sail through some choppy seas, but the present Greek coalition means that won’t happen for the present, and, sadly for Wafflin’ Willy, he needs Eurozone disruption to win election. That’s not going to happen.
Remember, we live in an interconnected world.
BMD