Is Europe actually beginning to wake up? (from the Financial Times) “The big problem with this government is that it takes orders from Mrs [German chancellor Angela] Merkel and doesn’t act like a sovereign state,” Mr Kammenos, who leads the Independent Greeks, a rightwing splinter group, told the Financial Times. “You can’t have the country where democracy was born being governed by email from Berlin.” I am of a generation of French people who deeply believed that the EU would allow us to stand united, an independent actor on the world stage and a real counterweight to the American Empire…suffice it to say that I have made better calls since those naive days! From the FT:- Independent Greeks leader says ‘we want elections’ Kerin Hope in AthensAuthor alerts Panos Kammenos, leader of the rightwing Independent Greeks party There was a time when Panos Kammenos would have been a natural ally for Antonis Samaras, the country’s centre-right prime minister. Mr Kammenos, once a rising star of Greek conservative politics, served as deputy shipping minister in a government backed by Mr Samaras’s New Democracy party. But as Mr Samaras struggles to save his government in a presidential vote that begins on Wednesday, Mr Kammenos, who broke away from New Democracy in 2012, is vowing not to come to the rescue. “The big problem with this government is that it takes orders from Mrs [German chancellor Angela] Merkel and doesn’t act like a sovereign state,” Mr Kammenos, who leads the Independent Greeks, a rightwing splinter group, told the Financial Times. “You can’t have the country where democracy was born being governed by email from Berlin.” The Greek presidential election, which has shaken financial markets and threatens upheaval in the country’s politics, is now thrusting the Independent Greeks and a clutch of unaffiliated politicians and splinter parties into an unaccustomed spotlight. To prevail, Mr Samaras must cobble together 180 votes for his party’s candidate, Stavros Dimas, by a third round of voting on December 29. Anything less than that and Greeks will go to the polls next month in a snap election which the far-left Syriza party is favourite to win. Political analysts expect Mr Dimas, a former European commissioner, to garner 161 to 165 votes on Wednesday. Only half-a-dozen of 24 independents, mostly New Democracy defectors, are committed to backing the government. Others have shrugged off fears of renewed political turmoil and even a “Grexit” from the eurozone. The Independent Greeks’ 12 MPs are being swamped with calls from political middlemen seeking to persuade them to break ranks and back the government. As backroom political talks around Athens heat up, the bidding is intensifying. Mr Kammenos, an economist known for his aggressive style, has never been considered part of the tight-knit Greek political elite. He launched his party on Facebook and attacks New Democracy for supporting the country’s second international bailout and a perceived reluctance to investigate alleged corruption under former Socialist governments. “We want elections, because the country needs to draft a new economic policy, including a debt restructuring, as soon as possible,” he said. “We foresee a coalition government that would exclude pro-bailout parties like New Democracy and the Socialists [the PanHellenic Socialist and Movement] that have failed to turn around the economy.”
Posted on: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 11:49:49 +0000
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