Translation: Greece’s Prime Minister, George Papandreou, is making his exit.
We only have to wait for the prime minister’s announcements in the cabinet. Everything must be done within the day, otherwise tomorrow it will be hell.Greek politician Telemachos Hitiris • Discussing the expected plans for the Greek government, which just had a prime minister survive a no-confidence vote. The plan now will be to come up with an interim coalition government to replace Prime Minister George Papandreou, who could resign as soon as Sunday. It’s been a weird week in Greek politics, in case you haven’t been following along. source (via • follow)
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Ignoring increasing calls to step down, Greece’s prime minister says he is seeking emergency talks with the opposition and warns that an early election would force Greece into leaving the euro currency.
Prime Minister George Papandreou made the comments in an emergency Cabinet meeting Thursday. His office released his speech to the ministers.
Papandreou sparked a crisis when he announced Monday he would put a European debt deal to a referendum in Greece. Two officials close to him say the referendum idea has now been scrapped, after the opposition indicated they backed the new bailout deal to cut Greece’s debts.
As we said on Twitter: Greece sounds really confused right now, like they need a Socrates to sort all this stuff out.
Greek bailout referendum scrapped: Man, this is a confusing morning as far as the Greek debt crisis goes. More details as we get them.
Despite earlier reports to the contrary, Greek PM George Papandreou won’t be offering up his resignation, Greek officials say. This isn’t a confusing morning at all!
Oh. Well this could be big. “Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou is expected to offer his resignation within the next half-hour, sources in Athens have told the BBC.”
Greek officials OK referendum plans: Like we said earlier (sarcastically, kinda), the stock market doesn’t like democracy. Democracy often goes against the best interests of investors. It’s messy. It works in ways that don’t always work in the best interests of the people who vote for it. But you gotta give people the opportunity to take advantage of the democratic system. No matter how much it hurts. That’s what Greece will go through very soon. Democracy. Don’t like it? Take an Alka-Seltzer and give yourself five minutes to get in a happy spot.
Papandreou’s office says “next week is particularly crucial” to the country’s next bailout. The debt crisis is also so bad that a guy lit himself on fire yesterday because he couldn’t renegotiate his loan.
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