bello cattivo il Venizelos!
Newsmaker: Greek finance minister brokers deal to rescue party
By
Dina Kyriakidou
ATHENS | Fri Nov 4, 2011 9:02pm EDT
(Reuters) - Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos is starring in a Greek political drama that may see his main socialist party rival, Prime Minister George Papandreou, out of power but give his party only a short stay of execution.
Papandreou secured the support of dissident MPs calling for his resignation to win a vote of confidence by pledging to form a new coalition government that would not need to have him at the head.
Sources said it was Venizelos who orchestrated the deal to offer Papandreou a honorable exit, delay snap elections and secure vital aid
Greece needs to avoid default.
"The country is going through a drama that is peaking and redemption is near," Venizelos told parliament. "The new coalition government must restore the country's credibility abroad."
The premier and his number two are worlds apart in style, experience and skill sets, but had set aside their differences to rescue Greece from its deepest crisis in decades and keep their socialist party in power.
The prime minister appointed Venizelos to the most important ministry in a June reshuffle, effectively anointing him his successor. The two had a fragile truce, with Venizelos the real power behind Papandreou's increasingly shaky throne.
But when Papandreou made a surprise announcement on Monday he would call a referendum on Greece's bailout deal, he left Venizelos in the dark and relations soured.
Sources said he was shocked. "He told the premier that foreign leaders at least should have been informed," said one official.
The decision opened a storm of protests at home and abroad and plunged Greece deeper into a crisis whose rippling effects have reached other
euro zone countries.
Venizelos, 54, a stocky party stalwart who can easily bully rogue members of parliament, stepped in to clinch a deal with deputies to back Papandreou in a confidence vote on condition that he forms a coalition government and stands down.
His tough-guy image may have lost Venizelos the battle for the PASOK party leadership to Papandreou in 2007.
Now sources said Papandreou agreed to propose the
finance minister as the head of the new coalition, that would last until about February and take the country to elections.
Even if the plan works and he takes the helm, deeper problems remained. Without reforming a dysfunctional state, there was little hope for a long-term solution to Greece's problems.
Venizelos, the son of a provincial lawyer from the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki, has bruiser looks that belie one of the sharpest intellects in Greek politics.
A law professor and one of Greece's top constitutional experts, he is famous for his rhetoric -- as government spokesman in the 1990s he reveled in verbal fencing with journalists.
After cutting his teeth in the leftist student movement, he was first elected to parliament in 1993 before going on to hold a series of ministries including Transport, Justice and Defense. As culture minister, he was in charge of preparing the successful 2004
Olympics in Athens.
