Word: papandreou
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Optimistic after negotiating an emergency bailout deal with fellow E.U. member states, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou sat down with TIME contributor Nicole Itano in his office at the Maximos Mansion in Athens this week. Highlights...
...third Papandreou to hold this office. In style, you are a very different leader from your father and grandfather. Your father was a very populist leader in many ways. Is that difference just reflective of your different personalities? Or is it also that it's a different time? Every leader wants to put his or her imprint on the work that they do, and grow up in specific eras. I think there is a heritage which I'm proud of, which is a fight for democracy, a fight for social justice, a fight for freedom. My grandfather went to jail...
...Papandreou is certainly raising the stakes. Greece's public finances are in a parlous state, and Papandreou says the government must refinance a large chunk of its fast-growing debt - conservatively estimated at 125% of GDP - or risk defaulting on its loans. He wants E.U. leaders to agree once and for all on a financial safety net for his country when they meet for a summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday. If the E.U. can't come to terms on a rescue plan, he says, Greece will be forced to turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) - a move...
...Like a true card shark, Merkel seems prepared to call Papandreou's bluff. The Greek leader had counted on the E.U. to collectively recoil in horror at the idea of his country's going to the IMF, but Merkel is effectively daring him to do it. Speaking to the German Parliament in Berlin last week, Merkel said that calling in the IMF "would probably have to be the way out right now if action were to be taken." She went on to say that the euro-zone countries should be able to kick out one of their own to avert...
...Merkel blinks and that happens, Papandreou's audacious gamble will pay off. But it could be a long and nervous wait until she finally shows her cards...