Greece in crisis, and in words

Athens - From a Socialist election victory in October to another general strike on Thursday, Greece has travelled in five months into its worst crisis since the end of military dictatorship in 1974.

The country is now committed to huge reforms to cut unsustainable budget deficits and debt.

As the crisis has worsened, so has the language to describe the situation become increasingly dramatic and colourful. Here are some examples:

• "The situation of our economy is explosive... we face a derailment of public finances without precedent," newly elected Socialist Prime Minister George Papandreou tells the Greek parliament on October 16 as the debt crisis emerges.
• "We are in a state of emergency and everybody must realise that," Papandreou says on October 21.
• "For the first time since 1974, the country's public finance deadlock threatens our national sovereignty, " Papandreou tells the cabinet on December 9.
• "We are determined to do whatever is necessary to check the huge deficit, to restore stability in public finances ... It is the only way to ensure that Greece does not lose its sovereign rights," he adds. "Either we eradicate the debt, or the debt will eliminate the country."
• The cover of Germany's Focus magazine in mid-February shows the ancient Greek statue the Venus de Milo making an obscene hand gesture with the caption: "A cheat in the euro family."
• "You owe us €70bn for the ruins you left behind," says Athens mayor Nikitas Kaklamanis February 23 in a reference to German occupation in World War II.
• "Today Greece is the guinea pig for EU stability ... tomorrow it will be Spain, Portugal and Italy": GSEE union leader Yiannis Panagopoulos during a strike against cutbacks on February 24.
• "We find ourselves today in a wartime situation," says Papandreou on March 2, saying Greece faces a "nightmare of bankruptcy in which the state would not be able to pay salaries or pensions".
• "Germany can't continue to be the paymaster of Europe, as it has been in the past": political scientist Gerd Langguth from the University of Bonn on March 3.
• "These decisions are necessary for the survival of the country and the economy," Papandreou tells reporters March 3 after announcing a new round of huge budget cuts. "So that Greece can exit the vortex of speculators and defamation, so that we can breathe and keep on fighting."
• "The situation is becoming critical," says GFT analyst David Morrison March 3.
• "I do not want Greece to be treated like a cancer": Greek singer Nana Mouskouri on March 3 when donating her European parliament pension to the government.

• "Leaving the euro area is an absurd hypothesis": European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet, on March 4.
• "You want war, you have it!" a banner held by demonstrators against the budget cuts on March 4.
• "Papandreou said that he didn't want one cent - in any case the German government will not give one cent," says Germany's Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle on March 5.
• "One cannot allow a country in the eurozone to fall. If one does not support Greece, because it is making efforts, it was not worth introducing the euro," French President Nicolas Sarkozy says on March 6.
• "With a general strike planned for Thursday and some €20bn of debt set to mature in April and May, market confidence looks likely to remain pretty fragile without even firmer pledges of support from the rest of the eurozone, particularly Germany": Capital Economics analyst Ben May on March 8.
• "Unprincipled speculators are making billions every day by betting on a Greek default," Papandreou says in a speech in the United States on March 8.
• "Between bankruptcy and recession, between the devil and the deep blue sea, there is no other alternative to the abyss": The head of the Greek employers' federation Dimitris Daskalopoulos says on March 10, attacking demonstrators for wanting to maintain the deplorable conditions which had led Greece to look for "charity" from foreign markets."

- AFP