THE GOVERNOR of the Central Bank Athanasios Orphanides repeated his warning about the need to reduce public spending. He says this every time he holds a news conference, warning that “if we do not solve the problem now, the problem would get bigger and bigger.” To emphasise the point he explained that “the fiscal deterioration that occurred in the Greek economy was the result of a problem that was not dealt with early enough.”

The funny thing is that the finance minister Charilaos Stavrakis usually agrees with this analysis, but invariably ignores the recommendations because President Christofias remains under the illusion that the deficit could be reduced by increasing state revenue. Even this week, Stavrakis was sticking to the presidential line, lamenting the fact that the legislature had rejected the government’s tax measures, as if these would have solved the problem. Only Stavrakis, Christofias and the self-serving union bosses, whose advice the president heeds, subscribe to this view.

Stavrakis’ comments about the tax measures were particularly worrying, because they suggest that Christofias is digging in his heels regarding the correctness of his decision to increase revenue rather than cut public spending. We hope this is not the case, because there is a great opportunity for measures, that would be unpopular, to be decided collectively and thus spare the government of shouldering the political cost on its own. The fact that the political parties are willing to take a share of the responsibility should be music to the president’s ears but for some reason it is not.

We are not in a position to examine the president’s concerns, but we know that collective action is the only way to stop the worsening of public finances. Stavrakis’ initial idea of consultations with the political parties was correct, but the president made a mockery of the exercise by ignoring their advice. Now is the opportunity to do things correctly. Representatives of the parties, Stavrakis and finance ministry officials should together formulate a package of measures that would focus on spending cuts.

This is the perfect opportunity to curtail the public servants’ privileges – lower entry-level salaries, reduction in pensions, introduction of social insurance contributions, a real two-year wage-freeze, CoLA only for low income-earners, lower retirement pay-off and so forth. If the majority of the parties agree on these measures and support them in the legislature, the budget deficit would at last be put on a healthy footing, while the unions would eventually fall into line. There could be some strikes but the public servants would eventually respect the wishes of society.

Collective responsibility and decision-making is the only way of tackling what is a national problem and Christofias would be a fool not to seize an opportunity to put the economy back on track and achieve the unity he so craves.