Greece: Papandreou survives confidence vote

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Greek protesters raise their hands in the traditional Greek insult gesture at Syntagma square in front of the Greek Parliament in central Athens, during a peaceful rally against plans for new austerity measures on June 21, 2011. (Milos Bicanski/Getty Images)

Greece's prime minister, George Papandreou, survived a parliamentary confidence vote and must now attempt to push through unpopular austerity measures.

Papandreou won the vote by 155 to 143, and he must now try to convince the public to accept spending cuts and national assets sales, the Guardian reports. This may be Greece's only hope for securing a new European Union bailout.

The confidence vote came as Greece faces the threat of sovereign default and anti-government and anti-EU protesters demonstrate in Athens.

"I believe we should go bankrupt and get it over with. These measures are slowly killing us," Efi Koloverou, 22, told Reuters during a protest. "We want competent people to take over."

(Thomas Mucha writes in GlobalPost's Macro blog Monday about rumors of the death of the euro.)

The European commission responded more positively.

"Good news for Greece and for the EU as a whole," Jose Manuel Barroso, the president of the European commission, reportedly said of Papandreou's win. He said the victory removed "an element of uncertainty from an already very difficult situation. His government can now focus all efforts on building support in parliament for the ambitious series of fiscal measures and privatizations."

The government will now try to push through 28 billion euros of cuts, tax rises, fiscal reforms and privatization plans, BBC reports.

Greece must pass this legislation to receive a 12-billion-euro loan from the EU to pay off its debts.

The euro weakened Wednesday on concern that Papandreou will not be able to pass the austerity measures despite winning the confidence vote, Bloomberg reports.

Greece is preparing to sell off billions of dollars worth of state assets including airports, highways and state-owned companies, as well as banks and real estate, to raise cash quickly to pay off loans, CNN reported earlier.

Greece will have to raise 50 billion euros through privatization by 2015, CNN said. It also has to implement budget-cutting measures, even while faced with strong opposition in the streets, where protesters angry about high unemployment and public-sector job losses have been staging huge protests, resulting in a government reshuffle last week.

The demonstrations also forced Papandreou to replace his finance minister.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/110622/greece-papandreou-survives-confidence-vote