EU accused of Athens coup after threat to end payments

By Bruno Waterfield in Brussels

7:00AM GMT 05 Nov 2011

The EU was accused of carrying out a coup yesterday after the head of the European Commission threatened Greece with “paralysis of the country” unless MPs removed their prime minister to form an unelected “national unity government”.

Jose Manuel Barroso has warned Greece that unless George Papandreou is deposed they will get no more money from Europe

José Manuel Barroso, the Commission president, warned that unless George Papandreou was deposed, Greece would not be able get its next payment from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, leading to national default and bankruptcy.

“What we expect to happen is to have a government of national unity,” he said. “What is the other option? Default and have real difficulties to pay wages to the public servants, to the schools, to the hospitals, which will lead to paralysis of the country. I am sure that the majority of the Greek people do not want this kind of chaos.”

Even after Mr Papandreou abandoned his plan to hold a referendum on the EU-IMF austerity plan, senior French, German and European officials demanded that he step down to allow for a “technical” government that could implement the measures.

“We respect Greek democracy and Greece’s right to decide on its own future,” said Mr Barroso. “At the same time, we need Greece to demonstrate commitment to the decisions that it has itself subscribed to.”

Raoul Ruparel, of the Open Europe think tank, said a new “compliant” Greek government would be a “victory for the EU elite”. Nigel Farage, the leader of the UK Independence Party, accused David Cameron of giving tacit agreement to the overthrow of European democracies by supporting closer “fiscal union” in the eurozone and EU. “Cameron is actively encouraging the countries of southern Europe to sleepwalk into slow-motion, sugar-coated coups d’etat,” he said. Le Soir newspaper in Belgium described Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy as “putschists at the head of Europe”.

The German Chancellor and the French president summoned Mr Papandreou to Cannes on Wednesday night to instruct him to call off his plans to hold popular votes on Greece’s involvement in Europe. The prime minister was accompanied by Evangelos Venizelos, his finance minister, and they were given the ultimatum that Greece would not receive “a penny more” in aid payments unless Athens convinced the EU that it was “ready to make the commitments that come with euro membership”.

On returning from the meeting, Mr Venizelos set about preparing the ground for Mr Papandreou’s departure and a new transitional national unity government involving the Right-wing opposition. By yesterday, the plot was well advanced, with Lucas Papademos, a former European Central Bank vice-president, tipped to be its head.

Mr Papandreou had for months resisted strong EU pressure to suspend normal parliamentary democracy for a unity government to impose austerity measures required to cut the country’s crippling debt, expected to reach 160 per cent of GDP this year.

President Sarkozy said yesterday that “things are progressing” towards a technocrat administration in Greece.

“I am pleased to see there are sufficient responsible politicians in Greece who have understood that message and who have been able to see the national priorities,” he said.

EU accused of Athens coup after threat to end payments - Telegraph