Greece in financial doldrums as polls loom | WPN World People News

As Greece heads for polls on June 17, for a second time in six weeks, former prime minister Lucas Papademos has warned that the country may run out of money by the end of June if international bailout funds are cut off.

To Vima newspaper quoted Papademos as saying that Greece's public finances could collapse, unless a stable government emerges from the June 17 election.

Papademos warned that conditions were deteriorating fast and cash flow was likely to turn negative in early June coupled with a sharp fall in tax revenues and a loosening of spending controls.

Meanwhile, IMF chief Christine Lagarde has attracted criticism from all quarters for branding Greeks as tax-dodgers.

Socialist leader Evangelos Venizelos accused Lagarde of trying to "humiliate" the debt-stricken country.

Alexis Tsipras, whose radical left Syriza party is one of the two top contenders for the June 17 vote, retorted with "Greek workers pay their taxes, which are unbearable".

Greek netizens launched a Facebook attack on Lagarde, with the IMF chief receiving more than 10,000 messages, many of them obscene, on her page on the online social network.

Lagarde told Britain's Guardian newspaper on Friday that Greeks must "help themselves collectively" by all paying taxes, and added that she was more concerned about Africans in poverty than Greeks in the economic crisis.

Lagarde responded to the Facebook tirade saying she was "very sympathetic to the Greek people and the challenges they are facing."

"That's why the IMF is supporting Greece in its endeavour to overcome the current crisis," she added on Facebook.

Source: Europe News.Net