ATHENS, Greece: Greece’s private creditors signaled progress late Tuesday on a debt-relief deal, but crucial talks between Greek coalition leaders about forcing more austerity upon a hostile public were again postponed.
Anger flared on the streets of Athens as more than 20,000 protesters marched through the Greek capital and unions called a general strike Tuesday against the new cuts in jobs and spending. The strike halted trains and ferries, closed down schools and banks and put state hospitals on short staffing.
Several hundred protesters clashed with riot police outside Parliament and set fire to a German flag — upset over Germany’s role in demanding more austerity from Athens.
“They are committing a crime against the country. They are driving wage-earners into poverty and wiping out pensioners and the unemployed,” said Vangelis Moutafis, a senior member of Greece’s largest union, the GSEE. “They are selling off state assets for nothing. This cannot continue.”
Greek Premier Lucas Papademos delayed a meeting with his coalition parties till today, staying in talks until late in the night with top bank negotiators as well as with debt inspectors from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
Greece is under massive time pressure to secure a new $170 billion bailout from its partners in the euro and the IMF without which it will default in March on its massive debts.
Representatives of the Institute of International Finance, which has been leading the talks for private bondholders on forgiving Greece part of its debts, had a “constructive meeting” with Papademos, IIF spokesman Frank Vogl said.
Papademos and Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos will soon brief the rest of the 17-nation eurozone on the proposed deal, Vogl said — a sign the bond-swap deal could be close.
The meeting of eurozone finance ministers could happen as soon as Thursday in Brussels, according to officials, although that will depend on finding agreement in Athens on the terms of the second bailout.
Greece has been kept solvent since May 2010 by payments from a $145 billion international rescue loan package. When it became clear the money would not be enough, a second bailout was decided last October.
