The Greek national broadcaster ERT situation is nowhere near a resolution, and the nation’s political stability remains in the balance with Antonis Samaras’s coalition partners, Evangelos Venizelos of PASOK and Fotis Kouvelis of Democratic Left, appealing to him Wednesday for talks on the future of the TV and radio station, but the premier has so far stood by his decision to close and later reopen ERT, leaving the government’s future in doubt. What is certain to make matters worse is that today, Greek public transport and state services will be disrupted as thousands of workers join a 24-hour snap general strike called on Wednesday by the country’s two main labor unions, GSEE and ADEDY, in protest to ERT’s shut down. The claim is that Samaras’ unilateral decision was the equivalent of a coup, which of course is not true: one can’t overthrow a country in which sovereignty has long since been ceded to the European Commission, and Germany in specific.
However, the market has no reason to worry about cracks forming in its ivory tower: since the journalists will also be on strike, and since the TV station is obviously shut down, there is no danger of a real-time video stream from Syntagma showing the all too well known Athens riots. As for Istanbul, that is another matter.
