What they want to hear
Back in the 1980s, evil tongues used to say that then-prime minister Andreas Papandreou would tell each of his interlocutors what they wanted to hear. I do not agree because, if nothing else, in the 12 years he governed the country, Andreas often said «no,» loud and clear, both to world leaders and to all-powerful groups on the home front with whom he often clashed fiercely. But enough of the past. Let us see whether his son, the current PASOK leader George Papandreou, says different things to different people. At last week’s Economist conference, where the audience was clearly conservative if not neo-liberal, the PASOK chief reiterated the correct position (which he had uttered in the past but subsequently forgot) on the need for a flexible labor market. I say «correct,» because in fact the European Commission and other international organizations (such as the IMF and OECD) have recommended changes in our labor market to fight unemployment and attract more Greek and foreign investment. On this question the government has generally been quiet. So Papandreou’s point about the need for flexibility goes a step further than the government and closer to business owners, to whom he is no doubt telling what they want to hear. After all, he is clearly talking about more flexible hiring and firing regulations. In his speech at the Economist conference, Papandreou said that of the four types of labor relations existing today «the Mediterranean, Anglo-Saxon, Central European and the Northern, we Socialists incline toward the Northern model» as combining security with flexibility. So, with his dismissal of Giorgos Floridis, Papandreou as well as Finance Minister Giorgos Alogoskoufis are not telling people the truth about the labor market. They are both telling people what they want to hear.
