Greek PM seeks to avert crisis over broadcaster shutdown

By Anthee Carassava, Athens 3:45PM BST 13 Jun 2013

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has called talks with coalition partners in a bid to defuse a crisis over his government’s closure of the state broadcaster, a move that has prompted nationwide strikes and could trigger new elections.

Thousands rally outside the Greek State broadcaster ERT headquarters in Athens Photo: AFP

The bailed-out Eurozone country was today facing fresh political turmoil as both junior coalition parties warned that Tuesday's abrupt closure of ERT could lead to the collapse of the fragile year-old alliance.

Buses and trains came to a halt, state offices were shut, hospitals operated on skeleton staff, and flights were grounded after Greece’s two biggest labour unions called 24-hour strikes in response to what they called a “coup-like move... to gag unbiased information”. Greek media maintained an indefinite news blackout while thousands of protesters rallied at ERT’s headquarters holding banners reading "Fire Samaras, not ERT workers!"

Workers formed a human chain at the building's entrance, while inside defiant staff camped out, attempting to continue a makeshift news service via private satellite links and internet streaming. In a statement, staff called for an end to the violation of "fundamental democratic rights" and for a guarantee that police would not be ordered into the offices.

The government said it pulled the plug on ERT and fired its 2,600 employees to stem the flow of taxpayers’ money into a network plagued by “waste, corruption and a scandalous operation.”

The conflict with the Socialist PASOK and the Democratic Left parties has rapidly turned into the most serious political crisis since Mr Samaras stitched the uneasy right-left coalition following last June’s election. “Either there’s a solution in a week or it’s elections,” conservative newspaper Kathimerini said on its front page.

The Prime Minister’s office said crisis talks had been tabled for Monday and a senior government official told Reuters that there was “scope for compromise”. However the official said Mr Samaras did not intend to reverse his decision to shutter ERT and relaunch a smaller more efficient entity.

Amid uncertainty whether agreement could be reached, one coalition source said the country was “on a knife edge”.

“The country doesn’t need elections, they would be a colossal mistake, but PASOK is not afraid of them,” said Socialist PASOK chief Evangelos Venizelos. “We support a radical restructuring of ERT, but not with blacked-out screens.”

Regarded by many as a den of patronage jobs which successive governments used over the decades to woo voters, ERT has shed much of its audience with the rise of commercial television. And while the network’s three channels pooled an audience share of 13 percent and its expenses ranged between three and seven times other commercial networks, pundits, politicians and the public were left aghast by its sudden switch-off. News presenters were cut off mid sentence, journalists dragged off air and a 75 year-old tradition of public broadcasting indelibly linked to Greece’s cultural identity scrapped within minutes.

“The prime minister may have wanted to show resolve and determination in his stated bid to reinvent the Greek state,” said John Loulis, a leading political strategist and analyst. “But in doing so, he came across as cocky and arrogant.” “He overplayed his hand,” he told The Telegraph, “and that may cost him dearly. This is the most defining moment for the coalition government.”

Although a coalion fraught with friction, the three parties have overcome frequent policy hitches in the year since they joined forces to steer the country to financial recovery.

Last month, however, disagreement over anti-racism reforms revealed serious rifts, with the the two minority partners breaking ranks from the prime minister for the first time.

“If a compromise isn’t reached now,” Mr Loulis said, “then the political crisis may spark early elections, and that would prove a monstrous failure and catastrophe for Greece.” Locked out of international markets and well into the throes of its worst financial crisis since World War II, the Greek economy has been shrinking for six consecutive years, with no end in sight, wiping out a decade of growth.

Greek PM seeks to avert crisis over broadcaster shutdown - Telegraph