Thursday 10 November 2011

New PM for Greece

I am uncertain on just how I feel in respect of the appointment of Lucas Papademos as interim Prime Minister for Greece.  With all my respect for Antonis Samaras gone owing to the way I believe he put his own political party and career before that of the Greek nation, is it right Greece should have what I see as a Prime Minister appointed that has not been democratically elected by the people.

Perhaps if Samaras had been more supportive of a coalition government, as requested by George Papandreou appointed representatives from both parties could have picked the best brains to work together and lead Greece out of this financial crisis without trying to win points off each other.  Did Samaras play to the point of brinkmanship, hoping the President would ask him to form a government, and loose?  We will probably never know.  If this was the case again a governing party would be in power that was not democratically elected.
No matter what public opinion of George Papandreou's actions are his party was voted into power, and as leader of that party he became Prime Minister. In his actions he endevoured to tackle the corruption within Greece and face head on the massive public and company tax evasions that exist.  For this he suffered the wrath of the unions and indeed some members of the public alike.

Greece became the first casualty of the Eurozone economic crisis not because of George Papandreou, but because of the current financial climate throughout the EU and indeed much of the western world. It may be argued owing to the previous poor financial state of the Greek economy it was bound to falter first.  Unfortunately like vultures over a dying body, bankers circle over a faltering economy to "pick the bones".  The skeleton left behind will unfortunately haunt the Greek people for years to come..............