The European Union’s new president-designate of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Junker, is again in Greece meeting with the prime minister to plot the next stage of the Greek recovery.<br /><br />Greece is approaching the end of its bailout programme, and now the government needs to find a long-term solution to the Greek debt problem.<br /><br />Greece supported Junker’s bid to be Commission president. Now it wants payback in the form of talks about the debt, preferably before the end of the year. The right-wing coalition needs to offer the electorate something as it is trailing the Syriza-led left opposition in the polls, and may face early elections in February.<br /><br />Pensioners are now at the forefront of protests against austerity, and are the latest group to say they can take no more.<br /><br />The prospect of lightening the country’s debt burden tops the agenda of the Greek government which feels that the new European Commission president is willing to lend a sympathetic ear to its arguments.
