EUROZONE-GREECE/MORNING Greeks face uncertainty as key bailout vote looms

Record ID: 149243

  • Title: EUROZONE-GREECE/MORNING Greeks face uncertainty as key bailout vote looms
  • Date: 22nd July 2015
  • Summary: ATHENS, GREECE (JULY 22, 2015) (REUTERS ACROPOLIS GREEK FLAG FLYING OVER ACROPOLIS EXTERIOR OF PARLIAMENT BUILDING GREEK FLAG ON TOP OF PARLIAMENT BUILDING GUARDS OUTSIDE PARLIAMENT BUILDING PEOPLE STANDING OUTSIDE PARLIAMENT DOG IN THE STREET SYNTAGMA SQUARE WITH PARLIAMENT IN BACKGROUND PEOPLE WALKING IN SQUARE (SOUNDBITE) (Greek) CIVIL SERVANT, TASOS KOUROPAKIS, SAYING:
  • Embargoed: 6th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Greece
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAPS6KHT2CAPGY3W357YORF1Q6
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: As the Greek parliament prepared to vote on a second set of bailout measures on Wednesday (July 22), many Greeks said they were resigned to an uncertain future.
    Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras faces his second major test in a week in parliament over reforms he wants lawmakers to adopt so bailout talks to keep the country in the euro can begin.
    A first set of reforms that focused largely on tax hikes and budget measures triggered a rebellion in his party last week and only passed thanks to votes from pro-EU opposition parties.
    Tsipras is likely to need opposition votes again for measures parliament will vote on late on Wednesday on propping up failed banks and speeding up the justice system -- two more conditions to start talks on the 86-billion-euro rescue deal.
    The government hopes the negotiations can then start this week and be wrapped up by August 20, but with divisions within Tsipras' leftist Syriza party laid bare by the votes, snap elections are likely in the autumn.
    For weary Greeks, Wednesday's vote is yet another step as the country tries to slowly move forward.
    "The truth is that we need to be patient. The people got really scared of a 'Grexit'. This is something that has shocked everyone. Even now you can see that people are wary," said civil servant Tasos Kouropakis, adding it will take time for Greeks to be reassured that the worst is finally over.
    But 80-year-old Sotiris, a pensioner, was more pessimistic.
    "Nothing. I'm hoping for nothing. Things are going from bad to worse. That's what I see. There is nothing more to say. Nothing," he said.
    For 69-year-old accounting consultant Costas Koutsoubas, who says he is in favour of Greece remaining in the EU, there is hope.
    "For us the only choice is to vote for these bills, let these three years pass, hoping that within Europe, we will find our way back to the markets and then slowly we can try to change Europe," Koutsoubas said.
    "We have now realised exactly how the situation is, what they are preparing for us and what they have set on the table for us, taking into account the mistakes we have made," said 55-year-old Fillio, a Communist party supporter and housewife, who helps her husband in the office.
    In the first signs of a return to normality, Greek banks reopened on Monday (July 20) and Athens paid debts due to the European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund.
    On Tuesday (July 21), Standard & Poor's upgraded Greece's sovereign credit rating by two notches, saying the country's liquidity perspective has improved with bailout talks.
    But for 57-year-old cleaner Rena Zifli, the future remains bleak.
    "I only have my salary (in the bank). My boss deposited it and I will take it out on Friday. They said that on Friday we can get 420 euros. So I will go and take it all. Anyway my salary is only 550 euro," said Zifli.
    Daily newspapers headlined Wednesday's vote, highlighting the rift within Tsipras' ruling Syriza party.
    "Tsipras' rupture with the Syriza rebels" declared the centre-right Ethnos newspaper, while "Tsipras front against Lafazanis and Varoufakis" ran on the Kathimerini newspaper, in a reference to former energy and finance ministers.
    Tsipras himself has said he disagrees with the measures demanded by Greece's euro zone peers and other international creditors for talks to proceed on a third bailout to save the country from bankruptcy.
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