Reuters: Mergers News: UPDATE 2-Greek leftist vows to nationalise banks, roll back cuts

Reuters: Mergers News Reuters.com is your source for breaking news, business, financial and investing news, including personal finance and stocks. Reuters is the leading global provider of news, financial information and technology solutions to the world's media, financial institutions, businesses and individuals. // via fulltextrssfeed.com

UPDATE 2-Greek leftist vows to nationalise banks, roll back cuts Jun 1st 2012, 16:19 Fri Jun 1, 2012 12:19pm EDT * Greek leftist leader vows to nationalise banks * If wins election, Tsipras says will freeze state selloffs * Latest opinion poll shows him leading By Harry Papachristou and George Georgiopoulos ATHENS, June 1 (Reuters) - Greek leftist leader Alexis Tsipras pledged on Friday to reverse unpopular wage and pension cuts, nationalise banks and freeze privatisations if he wins this month's election which one opinion poll put his party in the lead to win. In a fiery speech on the last day of opinion polls before the June 17 vote, widely seen as a referendum on the country's future in the euro, Tsipras stepped up the radical rhetoric that has horrified international lenders but won him support at home. "The adjustment we are proposing will come from taxing the wealthy and those with high incomes," the 37-year-old said to a crowd chanting "It's time for the left!" His speech came as the country's debt crisis risked turning into an energy crunch, with the national power regulator calling an emergency meeting next week to avert a collapse of the country's electricity and natural gas system. Regulator RAE called the meeting after receiving a letter from Greece's natural gas company DEPA, threatening to cut supplies to electricity producers if they failed to settle their arrears with the company. Tsipras promised his supporters he would save indebted households, cut taxes on bread and milk and hike taxes on the rich. A raft of polls show his SYRIZA party running slightly behind or neck and neck with the pro-bailout ND party, though the respected Public Issue poll for the conservative Kathimerini paper on Friday gave SYRIZA a six point lead. A vehement opponent of Greece's international bailout, which is conditional on deep spending cuts, Tsipras reiterated his resolve to cancel the 130 billion euro ($161 billion) rescue programme. Greece relies on the money from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund to avoid bankruptcy. Increasingly alarmed policymakers have warned Greeks that they face a painful return to the drachma if they abandon the programme and the austerity measures tied to it. But Tsipras has argued Greece can keep the euro while ditching the package. "The bailout has hooked an entire people and that is why we must get rid of it immediately," he said on Friday. The Greek banking sector that Tsipras wants to nationalise is close to collapse, battered by recession and its exposure to Greek sovereign debt whose value has been slashed. Tsipras said he wanted to nationalise banks that had been recently recapitalised. ERRATIC POLLS Riding a wave of popular anger directed at the country's political elite, Tsipras predicted the demise of his two main political rivals, the conservative New Democracy (ND) party and the socialist PASOK, saying they were "on their way out". An ND spokesman hit back, saying Tsipras's ideas would drive Greece out of the euro, while Evangelos Venizelos, the PASOK leader, said Tsipras's words would split society and risked leaving Greek isolated outside the global financial system. "Greek people must make historic decisions in the June election, aware of the consequences. Nobody can say that he did not know, was not warned or that he had no other choice," said Venizelos. Opinion polls show Tsipras's proposals have brought him wide support among voters grappling with record unemployment and sharply lower living standards following a series of wage, pension and spending cuts. Pollsters say the election outcome is too close to call, with a volatile mood among angry voters complicating predictions. "The differences are so small and nothing is set in stone. You don't know what will happen at the last minute in such a fragile political landscape" Dimitris Mavros, head of pollster MRB, told Reuters. This month's vote was called after an inconclusive election last month left no party able to form a government. Greece is in its fifth year of a recession that has left one out of five people out of work. With tax revenue plunging in a shrinking economy, officials have warned the country could run out of money this month without a fresh injection of aid. Economic data released on Friday showed the country's manufacturing sector shrank again in May but at a slower pace compared with the previous month, although declining production and orders forced firms to cut more jobs. A ban on the publication of any new opinion polls comes into force on Saturday. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions