For Papandreou and the investors and taxpayers who will share the cost of a beefed-up bailout for Greece, questions are increasing about whether he will complete a term that runs until 2013 and enact the budget cuts and asset sales that his benefactors demand.
The Greek premier, who has won assurances that international lenders will make the next payment of last year’s 110 billion-euro ($161 billion) rescue, will aim to quell growing dissent this week within his Socialist party -- known as Pasok -- over deeper budget cuts and asset sales as voters’ patience wears thin and public protests mount.
“The coming week may well test the seams of Pasok in parliament and could prove a challenge too much for Papandreou,” said Jens Bastian, a visiting economist at St. Antony’s College, Oxford University in England. “It is a make or break situation for his leadership of the party and the government.”
So far, the Minnesota-born Papandreou, 58, has avoided the fate of Socrates and Ireland’s Brian Cowen, who was ejected Feb. 26. In Spain, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has announced he won’t seek re-election after imposing record-setting austerity measures to avoid reaching for a lifeline.
Bloomberg
June 6
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-05/greece-s-papandreou-is-facing-growing-backlash-as-final-eu-bailout-premier.html
