Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy are not happy with Mr Papandreou for wanting to give the Greek people the opportunity to decide their own future by referendum and have summoned him to a pre-G20 meeting in Cannes later today.
They believe that because they have been the ones writing the cheques, they should call the shots. If the Greeks vote ‘yes’ to the austerity package, they agree to give their government the authority to bring about painful changes that will hurt everyone even more.
If they say ‘no’, Greece would default on its debts and leave the eurozone, something Merkel and Sarkozy refuse to contemplate because they do not want to see the end of their precious monetary union.
Here is a comment from Yannis Zabetakis, assistant professor at the University of Athens.
I am an assistant professor at the University of Athens and I also have two boys aged seven and five and I am worried about what their future holds. I am very puzzled and angry about the latest developments. The prime minister and his cabinet are asking people to make a decision on a highly unpopular policy that will affect this country for the next 10 to 20 years. The austerity measures have created unemployment and poverty and it will take a long time and drastic action to turn this around. We have a lost generation in Greece. Many of our young people feel they have no option but to migrate abroad just to find work. But following a path that leads to a referendum is a naive path. You are asking people to decide now policies that will change the lives of people in the future - when we have no idea about what is going on. What we really need are elections. Give people a true choice. This government was not elected to do this and so I think their actions are illegal. They are trying to legitimatise their actions.
Our experience of the last three years shows that the recipe they are making is all wrong and should not be continued. It is like they are milking us - the cash cow - to death through overtaxing and austerity. We need a bailout but the government is being immature. I think the prime minister has committed political suicide. His actions mean the good collaboration we had with the rest of the eurozone countries, with leaders such as Sarkozy, is gone. Everyone in this country has had to make changes to their life. My family's income has gone down by 20%. We are making sacrifices every day. I mean we even have to restrict the books we buy for our children. The worst thing is that people have lost their smiles, their humour, their optimism.
Another point of view from Vasiliki Vassiliades
I think that Prime Minister George Papandreou's decision to announce a referendum is actually quite a smart move. If money can be injected into the economy, then there will be hope. I'm 60 and I'm retired. I was looking for a job in the US where I was living but I couldn't find a role teaching English as a second language. I left the US because I believed that the EU would provide Greece with a bailout package and the situation would begin to get resolved” Earlier this year I decided to relocate to Greece so that I could save money and see if there were any opportunities here for me. I've renovated a family home we have here and am able to live rent-free. I also get a small stipend which I live off of. But my island is quite small and you see how Greece's austerity measures have affected everyone. Even here we have a lot of Albanians who work in the construction industry but many are heading back to Albania because there are no jobs here. I'm in a relatively good position but I honestly don't know how other people are coping.
As the world holds its breath, the political European elites are still in denial and seem set on the road to suicide.
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