Greeks still trust government, but see woes ahead

ATHENS, Greece --
Greeks facing tough economic austerity measures still prefer the country's socialist government to its conservative opponents, but predict more social unrest as the impact of spending cuts is felt, a new survey shows.
The survey, published Sunday in Kathimerini newspaper, shows the socialists leading the opposition New Democracy party 48 percent to 31.5 percent in voting preference. A similar survey published in January had shown the socialists leading 48 percent to 30.5 percent.

The socialists came to power in October, handing New Democracy its biggest-ever defeat, 44 percent to 33.5 percent, amid a sliding economy and a string of corruption scandals. Since then, it has been revealed that Greece's deficit had been heavily underreported, and that the final 2009 figure was 12.7 percent of economic output instead of the 6.7 percent projected by the conservatives last year.

About 80 percent of the new survey's respondents said they believe strikes and demonstrations are likely to escalate over the next three months. In the January survey, 67 percent had expected the escalation in protests.

The austerity package adopted under EU pressure contains wage freezes, bonus cuts and increased fuel taxes. It has already drawn the ire of the unions, with a one-day general strike planned for Feb. 24. The brunt of the measures has not yet been felt, and there is a widespread belief that Greece's European partners, rattled by the weakening of the euro over Greece's debt woes, will impose even stricter measures in the months to come. Socialist lawmakers are saying in private that they are bracing for a new round of bonus cuts in mid-March.

Still, the survey's respondents seemed to blame the conservatives for the present situation: asked about which party could better solve the country's problems, 40 percent chose the socialists, compared with just 7 percent choosing the conservatives, while 42 percent said "neither."

The survey questioned 1,042 people on Feb. 4-9, and gave an error margin of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.


The conservatives accuse the socialists of having dithered too long before deciding to act under the combined pressure of the EU and the markets. But the party, aware of public disapproval, has been measured with its criticism. New conservative leader Antonis Samaras also wants to draw a line with the past and admit mistake without explicitly disavowing former conservative Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis.

Conservative Dora Bakoyannis, a former foreign minister, said in an interview Sunday that her party had failed to take strong measures to improve the economy.

"Instead of going forward boldly, in a liberal (pro-market) sense, we were afraid of the political cost. ... Greek society was expecting and was ready to accept (these measures)," Bakoyannis told To Vima newspaper.

The government, struggling to regain credibility with the markets, attempted to contain the fallout from a Sunday article in the New York Times.

The article claimed that Wall Street banks had helped Greece hide the extent of its debt in 2001 through the use of a number of financial instruments. The article added that, as late as last November, a team from Goldman Sachs ( GS - news - people ), led by its president, Gary Cohn, had proposed to the new socialist government ways to help push Greece's mounting health care system debt into the future.

The government did not explicitly deny the information provided in the article but said nothing has been decided. It also declined to comment on the 2001 deal, done under a previous socialist government.

"The Greek government met with most major international banks over the last months in order to explore options and discuss their involvement in financing Greek national debt. No one particular investment firm has been given a specific mandate," a Ministry of Finance source told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. "As far as operations regarding debt financing are concerned, all such operations are conducted in an effort of transparency and in order to be fully Eurostat-compliant."

Πηγή: ΑΠΕ. DEMETRIS NELLAS