ELEFTHEROTYPIA

PASOK is in ruins

The government is in pieces

Fears are growing over the consequences the apparent electoral collapse of PASOK will have on government cohesion due to the clash between the party’s leader Evangelos Venizelos and former PM George Papandreou. The Prime Minister’s office at Megaro Maximou is being called to strike a pre-election balance between pressure from the troika and the fragile majority of the coalition government, as well as heal the electoral wounds caused by renegade local election candidates. The PΜ’s office is worriedly following developments in the fragmented center-left with concern over what PASOK’s MPs will do in the event of a party split. 

 
 

ETHNOS

Eurogroup to the Government: close all open fronts by Sunday!

Eurogroup has issued harsh criticism to the government over the delays in negotiations with the troika, demanding that the evaluation of the Greek implementation of the program be completed within the week.  

EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON

167 state-owned Athens properties to go under the hammer

Assets transferred to the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund

The ‘for sale’ state-owned properties that the government has slated for immediate auction reach the base of the Acropolis. Many of these are part of the ‘Synikoia ton Theon’ (district of the gods) in Plaka [one of the most ancient parts of Athens], while up for auction are also the ‘Prosfigika*’ housing on Alexandras St which is a fundamental part of our modern history.

[*The Prosfigika (literally: refugee housing) is a complex of 228 state-built flats in 8 large apartment blocks constructed in the early 1930’s to house the refugees expelled from Asia Minor as part of the population exchange agreement between Greece and Turkey established by the Lausanne Agreement in 1923. Today most of these stand empty and in a state of disrepair.] 


 

AVGI

The Public Power Corporation (PPC) to be sold off bit by bit


The ‘dowry’ for the ‘little PPC’ which is slated for privatization includes prime productive plants of the PPC and two million customers without their consent. The grid controlled by the Independent Power Transmission Operator is already slated for auction. SYRIZA: We will not recognize the sale.


The government is moving ahead with the general privatization of the Public Power Corporation, with the blessing of the troika, employing the method of carving it up and transferring the ‘good’ sections of the corporation to private hands which eill include the ‘reliable’ consumers.

Following legislation allowing the break-up and privatization of the electric grid (ADMIE), the draft legislation for the ‘little PPC’ which was put up yesterday for a few days of public consultation will allow the transfer to a subsidiary of the PPC power plants producing ‘cheap’ energy, such as coal plants and hydro-electric plants, as well as about 2 million PPC customers who will be selected according to various criteria without their consent being a necessary. In due course the new company will be privatized through an international tender with a predetermined – as usual – outcome. SYRIZA described the government machinations as a ‘major crime’.


 

KATHIMERINI

2 cases of Mad Cow Disease found in Fthiotida [a region to the north of Athens]

The cows had been imported from Holland

Two cases of spongiform encephalomyelitis in dead cows have been found in the region of Fthiotida, following examinations by Larisa state veterinary inspectors. The two six-year old cows were found dead and had been imported from Holland which raises questions over the checks on animals imported into Greece. The relevant veterinary authorities ordered an immediate ban on the transfer of animals and products to and from the affected cattle farm and an intensification of screenings at all of the country’s slaughterhouses.