Greece's new cabinet may last a month or two longer than planned, a senior government official said Saturday, but whatever happens Greeks should not expect any relief from the tough austerity measures they have endured for two years. A national unity government, led by technocrat Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, took power Friday with the task of tackling Athens' huge debt load and meeting the terms of a 130 billion euro bailout agreed with rescue lenders last month. Papademos replaces George Papandreou, who unearthed years of fiscal cheating at the start of the global economic crisis and then fought a losing battle to push through unpopular austerity measures against public and political opposition. “The maneuvering space for any relief measures in 2012 is very narrow,” he said. In his first statement as prime minister, Papademos vowed to fulfill a deal forged last month with euro zone leaders that will release an 8 billion euro loan Athens needs to avoid running out of cash next month plus longer-term funding later. “The government's main task is to implement the decisions, the conclusions of the October 26th and 27th euro zone summit meeting, and secondly to put into force the economic policies which come together with these decisions,” he said. A source from the so-called “troika” of the EU, the IMF and the ECB said inspectors would visit Athens early next week to speak with the new government and would clear the next tranche only when it pledged to meet its commitments. Papademos said his first task would be to tackle runaway unemployment. He must also start chipping away at a debt load of more than 30,000 euros for each of Greece's 10.8 million people which, at 162 percent of annual output, is almost double the EU average. Pundits say that despite representing a fresh start in tackling Greece's debt problems, Papademos will face the same two obstacles as the previous cabinet: political infighting and a public staunchly opposed to more economic pain. After tax hikes, public wage and pension cuts and state sector layoffs, Greeks now face record unemployment of almost 20 percent and a fourth year of economic recession in 2012. “I am not relieved at all there's a new government,” said Eleni Papageorgiou, a 53-year-old housewife. “I know only one thing, no matter what government is up there, things will get worse for me rather than better.”
