PM needs amenable ministers
In practice, the success of the government’s fiscal adjustment program depends on a handful of ministers who have undertaken very serious responsibilities and difficult tasks and find themselves having to tackle uncompromising vested interests. It is these ministers whom Premier George Papandreou should be defending and not those who make heroic gestures before the representatives of Greece’s international creditors. Such gestures are of no practical benefit to the country; indeed, they put it at even more risk. It is clear that what were supposed to be talks on the thorny issue of labor relations did not yield anything, embarrassed Papandreou and gave rise to the unprecedented spectacle of a minister entering negotiations with a representative of the European Commission only to emerge empty-handed. Papandreou will only manage to achieve his goals and avoid similar embarrassment in the future if he realizes that he has to rely on those ministers that are ready and willing to help him bring his difficult task to fruition.
