GREECE Playing games with the referendum

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou yesterday said he would be willing to abandon the controversial plan to hold a referendum on the second tranche of the foreign bailout of Greece, on whether it would leave the Eurozone, said Los Angeles Times.

The announcement of the Greek official, which was made to the LA Times, in the Parliament of Athens, followed the emergency reunion of the Greek cabinet, which took place yesterday morning.

The referendum plan caused political tension within the country and outside it, as well as on the international financial markets.

The European leaders, who met yesterday in Cannes (France), where a two-day G20 summit began, pressured the Greek PM, warning that a decision must be made quickly on whether Greece would leave the Eurozone or not.

Anna Diamantopoulou, the Greek Minister of Education, said that Papandreou yesterday came to the government session with the proposal to drop the referendum.

In turn, Papandreou declined to cave in to the pressure of the opposition and even of some of the members of his own Socialist party to hand in his resignation, deciding instead to await the result of the vote of confidence in the Parliament, scheduled to take place today.

Papandreou has sparked off a political crisis in Greece, and on a European level - fears that a potential exit of the country from the monetary union would endanger the entire Eurozone.

Still, German chancellor Angela Merkel said that France and Germany "will not abandon the Euro", even if the Greeks were to vote in favor of leaving the Eurozone.

In turn, French president Nicolas Sarkozy stressed that Greece must decide whether it wants to stay in the Eurozone and clarify its stance on the European rescue plan, if it hopes to receive the financial aid.

"We have clearly told the Greek authorities that the Europeans and the IMF can"t consider the disbursement of the sixth tranche of the aid program until Greece fully adopts the block of measures which were decided on October 27th, and the uncertainty on the outcome of the referendum doesn"t disappear", said Nicolas Sarkozy.

Yesterday morning, the European leaders had announced that they were suspending the disbursement of the tranche of 8 billion Euros of the financial aid to Athens, demanding that Greece make a clear-cut decision on whether it intends to stay in the Eurozone or not.