You're reading: Greek deal on austerity measures still elusive

ATHENS, Greece — A deal on making further cuts to Greece's budget will take a few more days at least, after the leaders behind the coalition government failed to agree details of an austerity package that is crucial to the financial survival of the country.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras
met again Thursday with Evangelos Venizelos, the leader of the Pasok
socialist party, and Fotis Kouvelis, the leader of the Democratic Left.
The three, who have been holding regular meetings for the past few weeks
in an attempt to agree a deal, appear to be at odds over how to make
further cuts to such things as benefits, salaries and pensions.

The
Greek government has to come up with a package of cuts worth at least
€11.5 billion ($15 billion) if it’s going to get its hands on bailout
cash from international creditors. Without the money, Greece faces the
real prospect of defaulting on its debts and abandoning the euro.

The
government still has time to agree the package, but not much. Greece
still has enough money in the bank to cover its expenses over the coming
weeks.

Finance minister Yannis Stournaras described the
negotiations as “very difficult” but said he hoped a deal would be
clinched in coming days. Venizelos said talks would resume next week,
probably on Sept. 26, and insisted that cuts worth €8 billion ($10.36
billion) had already been agreed upon.

Politicians have had
trouble agreeing on the details of the package, which is expected to
include more salary and pension cuts for the years 2013-14. Critics say
it’s just going to make the recession worse and make it more difficult
for Greece to pay down its debts.

“Nothing has been finalized,”
Kouvelis said. “All those who hastened to declare that the measures have
been decided were mistaken.”

The new cuts are a source of
indignation among many Greeks, including judges and police, especially
as Greece has already enacted several austerity packages since it became
reliant on bailout loans in May 2010.

Earlier on Thursday,
policemen guarding the prime minister’s office in central Athens used
pepper spray to push back about 20 demonstrating colleagues, who held up
a banner that read “Protect those who protect you.” No arrests were
reported by authorities.

“We staged a small protest together with
colleagues from the Coast Guard and the Fire Service. We wanted to hand
over a petition to the government,” Grigoris Bakaris, a senior member of
the Greek Police Officers’ Association who joined the protest, told the
AP.

“There was an argument — I wouldn’t call it a scuffle, but an
argument — and that was a very limited use of chemicals (pepper spray)
and the incident ended there. We later were allowed to hand in our
petition.”

Authorities responded to the protest by padlocking
entrances to a public park near the prime minister’s office, leaving
more than 20 tourists stranded inside for over an hour.

Elsewhere in in the capital, public transport workers staged a 24-hour strike, halting subway and tram services.

Judges
and doctors at public hospitals also began protests this week, turning
away most cases in a slow-down strike, while tax workers are to strike
Friday.

Athenian Stelios Noussas drove to work because of the subway strike, but said he supported the protest.

“They’re
striking for their rights. We’re all in the same boat,” he said. “If we
don’t have strikes how will we pursue our rights? Good for them.”