Greek crisis: Your stories

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou isfacing calls to resign , amid uncertainty about a eurozone bailout deal.

Senior members of his own party, including influential Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos, said they opposed Mr Papandreou's plan to hold a referendum on the EU deal.
BBC News website readers in Greece have been reacting to the latest political developments taking place in their country.

 Haris Daskalothanassis, Athens

                                                                                     Mr Papandreou's time is up. I am not underestimating the challenges he's faced over the past two years or his accomplishments, but by now he is simply a spent force, and possibly a hindrance to the effort required to get Greece back on track.

His credibility is shaken and his ability to steer Greece through the crisis is being challenged from all quarters.
Mr Papandreou is living proof that nothing in politics can substitute for effectiveness and straight talk.
He aimed to become the first of a new generation of Greek politicians but he ended up being, hopefully, the last of the outgoing generation.
I think Greece is a country with great potential which needs more effective leadership in general - political, intellectual, and in business.
I am pained and angry by the way Greeks are portrayed internationally. It is unfair and does not represent me or the people I know.
Also, I am angry with the brusque and dismissive way that Greece and its people have been dealt with on the level of pronouncements by many European leaders. This is no way to run a union of nations.
My hope is that everyone will step back, take a deep breath, do what is required, tell people the truth, make them believe that there is hope.
Greek families are suffering greatly. There's also a feeling that the austerity measures are indiscriminately implemented on the just and the unjust alike.
Tax evasion remains largely unchallenged - corruption is not being punished and unnecessary bureaucracy is still a feature of daily life. As for the prescriptions of the stabilisation program, there's a feeling that we live in an experiment and we are the lab rats.
The effect on me has been relatively mild so far - still I have lost almost 20% of my disposable income due to new taxes and there's the terrible feeling of seeing your family and friends depressed, some of them desperate.

 Anthony Stott, Heraklion, Crete 

The PM should go as he has completely lost the confidence of the people who believe him to have been the tool of not only Germany and France but also the US.
He has dithered his way through office and been completely indecisive for far too long.
His legacy is one of incompetence. He is viewed in Greece as having inherited the sins of his father who started the country on this downward slope. He may be thought of as the man who sold his own country.
The visitors to Greece are not stupid. They can see that the government passes laws such as the wearing of seatbelts, the use of crash helmets and the no-smoking law and then fails to implement them.
It is very difficult to see a way out of this crisis as not all the political parties seem able to work together, but the people must be given the chance to speak through an election in the very near future.
Pasok would undoubtedly lose but there is a lack of credibility all round. I cannot see any way that Greece can repay all the money it owes even with a 50% haircut.
A federal Europe is of no use to them. They would be better with the drachma and to allow the currency to find its own level to make the country more competitive. The future is very bleak.

The austerity measures are completely wrong. Businesses are closing on a daily basis resulting in less income for the government and increasing unemployment.

A massive sense of despair is being felt by the people.
Greece needs investment not punishment. One of the largest sources of income has been the tourist industry but this has been negated by the foreign tourist companies insisting on all-inclusive holidays, which means very little of the cost of the holiday actually comes to Greece.
Some are paying hotels as little as 10 euros per day per room. Unemployment on the island of Crete for the 18 to 24 age group is currently 42% this will increase as the tourist season closes.
I have spoken with many people and all say that they wish they had their national currency again the euro has made everything expensive.
A worrying development is the increasing crime rate as desperation sets in.

Thodoris Foudoukidis, Thessaloniki

 

We live in historical times. Our country has been captured by a multi-faceted crisis - financial, political and social.
The government is going down, the future is uncertain. Some propose elections and some others a caretaker government until Greece picks the 8bn euros, but this is not the solution if the next government continues with the same politics.
We cannot expect a solution to such a problem by those who created it. The Greek financial problem was created by loans that then created interest upon interest which created and demanded more loans - this cannot be solved with yet again more loans and interest.
Loans have been used for selfish purposes by politicians and their friends who supported them financially in the elections.
The government increased the deficit of 2009, by deferring the revenues of 2009 to 2010 and the costs of 2010 to 2009.
The PM hasn't asked the citizens if they wanted to apply to the IMF, he hasn't asked us if we are willing to pay for a crisis that banks and politicians created in the last 30 years. He insisted on an increase in taxes and a reduction in income and pensions.
He assumed the future without democratic legitimacy, as the polls show that less than 15% of the citizens approved his government.
Greek citizens are the victims and not the victimisers. We say no to new loans that make our country poorer, we say no to politics and politicians that have made us addicts to loans.

Other comments

George Tsifoutidis, in Hellenikon, says: Papandreou should have gone to the voters shortly after his electoral victory in September 2009 explaining that he discovered a huge debt that needed extraordinary measures.
It is hypocritical to go to the voters now. I feel disgraced by Papandreou.
Hielmi Abdurahman, in Sparti, says: The referendum needs to take place here in Greece so the people have a chance to make their feelings known officially.
Austerity is one thing. The poverty being foisted upon the Greek people has become unacceptable.
Further more Greece should call for an audit of the country's finance which, I believe will write off approximately half to two-thirds of the debit as either odious or illegal.
Of course the biggest losers in this scenario would be Germany and France. Is it any wonder therefore that they are so adamant that Greece accepts the debt relief package that is on offer?

 

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