Reuters AlertNet Full site
Homepage | Newsdesk | NGO Latest | Crisis briefings | Country profiles | MediaWatch | Jobs | Alerting | Login

NEWSDESK

FACTBOX-Scandals, economic woes plagued Greek PM
02 Sep 2009 21:34:07 GMT
 Source: Reuters
Sept 2 (Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis called snap elections on Wednesday [ID:nL2686436], taking a risky bet as his conservative party lags behind the opposition in polls.

Here are some of the reasons that led to this decline in opinion polls -- with the ruling party trailing 6 percentage points behind the opposition -- and his decision to end months of speculation with a vote:

ECONOMY

The global slowdown has hit the Greek economy hard, shaking its basic pillars - tourism and shipping. With Greece facing its first recession since 1993, budget revenues have slowed to a trickle, deficits have grown and debt has ballooned. The government, which rushed to support banks with a 28 billion euros aid package but imposed an array of taxes to plug budget holes, was seen as helping the rich and neglecting the needy.

Seen by investors as the euro zone's soft underbelly, Greece has the single currency bloc's second biggest debt as a percentage of GDP next to Italy's -- seen at 103.4 percent in 2009.

SCANDALS

After sweeping to victory in 2004, ending decades of socialist scandals and vowing to clean Greek politics, the Karamanlis government soon found itself accused of graft.

Scandals such as the sale of overpriced government bonds to state pension funds and suspect property deals between the state and wealthy monastery, took their toll. Although some ministers were sacked or resigned, none of the government officials involved ever got to trial and Karamanlis gave the impression that he either tolerated or was unable to end corruption.

VIOLENCE

After Greece's worst riots in decades in December 2008, violence has simmered with frequent gas canister attacks and some bomb attacks. The riots were triggered by the police killing of a teenager and were fanned by high youth unemployment and mistrust in the political system and a just society.

Leftist and anarchist groups have capitalised on the climate of social unrest to renew attacks on businesses, cars and police, culminating with the assassination of a policeman in his car in June. On Wednesday, a car bomb seriously damaged the Athens stock exchange and slightly injured one woman in what police suspect was a leftist guerrilla attack.

WEAK GOVERNMENT

The fragile one-seat majority made the government too weak to cope with both hard but necessary reforms and its own dissidents. Facing not only street protests but even resistance from within its own ranks, the government has been slow to implement structural reforms needed to boost competitiveness and put the economy on a long-term growth path.

A 2008 overhaul of the social security system, which experts warned would collapse in 15 years due to an ageing population, fell short of what was necessary. Education reform, seen as crucial to making the labour market more competitive, had a similar fate amid violent protests.

FIRES

Greece's worst forest fires in memory killed 65 people in 2007 and caused a public outcry but the government narrowly won its second national election weeks later after handing out immediate cash to afflicted farmers of the Peloponnese peninsula and Evia island.

But destructive forest fires last month that razed thousands of acres of forest near Athens and damaged scores of homes were harder to weather. Critics said the government had learned nothing from the destruction two years ago and allowed anarchic development to sprout in burnt forests, encouraging greedy developers.


AlertNet news is provided by
Email this article       Send comments

Topics

•  Politics of Aid

MORE >>

NGO latest

•  Mali: Support for displaced people in northern Mali
ICRC - Switzerland

•  LEBANON AND GEORGIA CLUSTER BOMB VICTIMS REMEMBERED
HI - Belgium

•  UK-Liechtenstein deal exposes failure of tax information exchange agreements
Christian Aid - UK

•  Red Cross Red Crescent complete 44,000 new homes for tsunami survivors
IFRC - Switzerland

•  Christian Aid welcomes new bribery and corruption report
Christian Aid - UK

MORE >>

Latest news

•  FACTBOX-Scandals, economic woes plagued Greek PM

•  Rajoelina says Madagascar needs donors

•  Weak, soggy Tropical Storm Erika nears Leewards

•  From Polar ice rim, Ban issues call for urgent action on climate change

•  Reuters South Asia News Highlights 1200 GMT Sept 2

MORE >>

AlertNet news is provided by

Background information

Topics
Politics of Aid
Facts & figures
Greece Georgia

Related articles

Breaking stories
 FACTBOX-Scandals, economic woes plagued Greek PM (1 minute ago)

Rajoelina says Madagascar needs donors (1 minute ago)

AlertNet insight
 MEDIAWATCH: Aid agencies and government under fire in Pakistan (1 minute ago)

Aid agency news feed
 Mali: Support for displaced people in northern Mali (1 minute ago)

Blogs
 Norwegian memo sparks PR crisis for UN's Ban Ki-moon (1 minute ago)

Maps
 MAP: Global projected land use changes, 1700-2050 (1 minute ago)


Del.icio.us Del.icio.us  |   Digg Digg  |   NewsVine NewsVine  |   Reddit Reddit   
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-07-26T192109Z_01_COR103_RTRIDSP_2_EUROPE-WEATHER_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/COR103.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-07-26T191850Z_01_COR101_RTRIDSP_2_EUROPE-WEATHER_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/COR101.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-07-26T191632Z_01_COR102_RTRIDSP_2_EUROPE-WEATHER_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/COR102.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-07-07T120853Z_01_SKO02_RTRIDSP_2_MACEDONIA_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/SKO02.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-07-07T120226Z_01_SKO01_RTRIDSP_2_MACEDONIA_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/SKO01.htm

Smoke rises from burning trees near the village of Cargiaca on the French island of Corsica July 26, 2009. Bush fires raged across southern Europe on Friday, with a prolonged spell ...


More pictures | Galleries
Disclaimers |  Copyright |  Privacy |  Contact Us |  Feedback |  About Us |  RSS XML

Last updated:Wed Sep 2 21:36:04 2009