Antonis Samaras

By Renee Maltezou & Deepa Babington

Greece has put the worst of a debt crisis behind it and is considering issuing new debt within three months, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras told Reuters on Wednesday.

Over the past few years skeptics at home and abroad have speculated that debt-hit Greece will have to leave the common currency area.

Such gloomy predictions were yesterday debunked in the most official of ways. Euro-exit scenarios are no longer on the cards and the usual doomsayers have mostly fallen silent.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and Deputy Premier Evengelos Venizelos are due to hold a second meeting on Monday to discuss the fallout from the passing of the multi-bill through Parliament on Sunday night and preparations for the Eurogroup and ECOFIN meetings in Athens on Tuesday and Wednesday.

PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos slammed his predecessor George Papandreou for failing to support both articles of the omnibus bill in a late vote on Sunday but stopped short of ousting the former prime minister from the party, a move that would have put the coalition’s majority at risk.

The omnibus bill containing liberalization measures and other reforms that Greece needed to pass to receive its next bailout tranche squeezed through Parliament at just after midnight on Sunday but the vote led to the government’s majority dwindling further.

People line up outside a pharmacy in central Athens that was on duty on Friday. Pharmacists have been on strike for several days and have vowed to continue their action unless the government withdraws a provision for the deregulation of the over-the-counter drug market.

The likelihood of a major parliamentary rebellion, which could even put the coalition at risk of losing Sunday’s vote on the omnibus bill of reforms, appeared to diminish on Thursday after lengthy talks between members of the government and lawmakers.

Free Internet access will be available across Greece as of November through a network of up to 4,000 Wi-Fi points in closed and open public spaces, Transport and Networks Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis said Wednesday.

The government is expected to announce by Friday how it will share out the so-called “social dividend” from Greece’s 2013 primary surplus, sources have told Kathimerini.

The government is to draft legislation aimed at creating greater transparency regarding party finances and to reduce the total funding they receive to around 10 million euros a year, sources told Sunday’s Kathimerini.