The European Union’s new president-designate of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Junker, is again in Greece meeting with the prime minister to plot the next stage of the Greek recovery.
Greece is approaching the end of its bailout programme, and now the government needs to find a long-term solution to the Greek debt problem.
Greece supported Junker’s bid to be Commission president. Now it wants payback in the form of talks about the debt, preferably before the end of the year. The right-wing coalition needs to offer the electorate something as it is trailing the Syriza-led left opposition in the polls, and may face early elections in February.
Pensioners are now at the forefront of protests against austerity, and are the latest group to say they can take no more.
The prospect of lightening the country’s debt burden tops the agenda of the Greek government which feels that the new European Commission president is willing to lend a sympathetic ear to its arguments.
