The effort for consensus has not been given up in spite of the apparent failure of an earlier political leaders' council convened by the president, government sources said late on Friday.
"There is not a Cold War climate. On our side the issue of reaching understanding is not over," the sources said after the meeting. According to their estimates, the climate and the way the political party leaders had dealt with the situation left some "chinks" for holding a discussion, even though there had not been any overall shift in the party leaders' positions.
They said the government had sought the meeting and was striving for political consensus on the measures because the country was at a critical juncture and there was no room for backtracking. They made it clear, however, that this not because Greece was at risk of being expelled from the eurozone, dismissing such talk as a 'joke'.
Relaying what happened during the leaders' council, they said that Prime Minister George Papandreou had made specific proposals to the party leaders, as well as asking them to agree to certain fundamental goals.
The prime minister had also indicated the government's willingness to negotiate on certain issues, such as placing individuals agreed on by all the parties in key positions, such as the Public Property Fund, or hold joint meetings with troika officials.
On the contentious issue of raising taxes, which was the focus of objections from main opposition New Democracy in particular, Papandreou said he was open to suggestions on avoiding this but stressed the need to replace the higher taxes with measures leading to an equivalent reduction in the public deficit.
Another of his proposals was a meeting between the economic teams of each party but this, according to government sources, received no reply from the party leaders.
The same sources repeated that there was no question of holding early elections while they ruled out the prospect of an all-party government, saying the government was prepared to consider the participation of individuals accepted by all parties for key positions but not as ministers.
ANA
