Brussels, 13/06/2013 (Agence Europe) - In response to a call from the trade unions for a general 24-hour strike, over 12,000 people demonstrated throughout Greece on Thursday 13 June to protest against the abrupt closure of the public audiovisual service, ERT, the day before.
Far from being backed in his decision by his colleagues in government, the Greek prime minister, Antonis Samaras, stated the reasons for his decision on Wednesday evening during a conference at the Greek Chamber of Commerce. A new channel will be created “very soon”, he said.
Hostile reaction to this unilateral initiative continued well into Thursday. In a common position, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and the Greek trade union GSEE consider that the ERT belongs to the Greek people and is only accountable before the Greek taxpayers who pay for the public radio and television broadcasting service. The Greek section of the European association of journalists totally disapproves of the methods used, it says.
Political crisis is simmering. The ERT affair is making the government coalition more fragile. Andreas Papadopoulous, the spokesman for the coalition partner, Dimar, cited by Bloomberg, says “Samaras is undertaking the responsibility of leading the country to elections”. The Greek government will be meeting on Monday morning to assess the situation.
During its regular assessments, the troika of creditors (European Commission, ECB and IMF) underlines the risks that surround the implementation of the programme, linked to the vulnerability of the government coalition, which only has a relatively thin majority in the national parliament. It also doubts the government's ability to keep its commitments by facing “vested interests”. Also, the Commission has often underlined the fact that, if the Greek programme were to derail, this would have a significant negative impact (see EUROPE 10861). Whether this is a timetable coincidence or not, the country's ten-year borrowing rates have gone beyond 10% after the failed DEPA privatisation and after MSCI had lowered the country to emerging country status.
ERT restructuring planned with troika since 2011. On Wednesday, the Commission firmly rejected the existence of discussions underway in recent years with the Greek authorities of a specific plan to close down or restructure this public audiovisual establishment. It says that Athens is in the process of identifying “public entities” that need restructuring or closure. ERT restructuring was indeed planned since spring 2011. In a follow-up report on the first aid plan to Greece, the Commission notes legislation relating to the closure, merger or reduction of public entities identified, including ERT. On Thursday, a spokesman for the European institution said that, although the Commission was indeed aware of the restructuring planned for ERT, it had not at any moment been informed beforehand of the decision to temporarily close down the public entity in order to achieve this, acknowledging that there were other ways to achieve the announced restructuring.
Restructuring comes within the strategy set in place with Athens' creditors for reforming the public sector. Between 2010 and 2015, the public sector should lose 150,000 civil servants. This is a target that the Greek finance minister, Yannis Stournaras, feels could be exceeded (see EUROPE 10847). Out of the 2,656 ERT employees, only a fraction is due to be re-employed in the new entity that will have a budget of €100 million. (EL/transl.jl)