Greek debt crisis: PM proposes referendum on constitution

Constitutional changes would make it easier to prosecute state officials for bringing country to its knees, says Papandreou The Greek prime minister, George Papandreou, has called for a referendum on “changes to the political system”, including to the country’s constitution, as he embarked on a three-day parliamentary marathon that will culminate in a confidence vote in his beleaguered government on Tuesday. Papandreou blames Greece’s bloated state sector for bringing the country to its knees and has vowed to effect deep changes. He said the constitutional revision would make it easier to prosecute delinquent government officials. Papandreou also made a last-ditch plea to his country to pull together behind his latest package of austerity measures, which he says are essential to save Greece from bankruptcy. He said Greece was negotiating a new international bailout package that was “roughly equal” to last year’s €110bn lifeline. European eurozone ministers are meeting in Luxembourg on Sunday night to thrash out a new deal for Greece that officials hope will spare it from default and buy it breathing space to get its public finances in order. Greece’s debt is currently more than €300bn – 150% of its entire annual economic output. Papandreou appealed to parliament to approve a new five-year package of tax hikes and spending cuts agreed with international lenders, saying that the alternative was a debt default that would prove catastrophic. Last week, he failed to muster enough support from MPs for the package, and was forced to sack his finance minister and reshuffle his government. His new finance minister, Evangelos Venizelos, headed to Luxembourg to meet eurozone ministers. But the real opposition to Greece’s austerity plans come from closer to home, where protesters have vowed to step up demonstrations and unions are planning new strikes to pressure MPs into rejecting the budgetary package. Workers at Greek state utility PPC said they would launch a 48-hour strike at midnight, that may result in rolling power outages, to oppose government plans to sell the company. Greece European debt crisis Europe Global recession Financial crisis guardian.co.uk

Posted by on June 19, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.