ML-Implode News - Greece's government: Wobbling along

On June 11th Antonis Samaras, the prime minister, eager to show that his fractious coalition could push through public-sector reform, shut the overstaffed state broadcaster ERT without warning and sacked its 2,650 employees. Few Greeks watch ERT's four television channels; its programmes are dull and its news anchors are political stooges (a leaked list found dozens of employees earning six-figure salaries). And the European Union and the IMF, who oversee Greece's bail-out, were waiting impatiently for the government to come up with the names of 2,000 public-sector workers to be sacked by June 30th.
Mr Samaras pledged to have a lean new public broadcaster, with only 1,200 employees, up and running by August. But hundreds of protesters camped outside ERT's headquarters... Then a ruling by Greece's highest court, in response to an appeal by the ERT's trade union, said the broadcaster should reopen, though it backed the government's right to restructure it.
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The ERT affair makes it harder to sell Greece's "success story" of reform. In its year in office the coalition has done well on budget targets: there may be a small primary surplus (ie, before interest) this year. But unless the government can restructure the civil service and curb tax evasion, the bail-out will veer off track, fears the "troika" of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF.

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Greece's government: Wobbling along