Last Monday, an emergency presidential decree forced up to 1,500 local government bodies to transfer their excess cash reserves to the Bank of Greece. The measure, which was pushed for by Brussels, has been met fierce resistance in the country. Giorgis Kaminis, the mayor of Athens, said he would fight the confiscation law, attacking it as "unconstitutional".“We’re determined to use all political and legal means we can to repudiate the content of the decree,” the Union of Municipalities and Communities said in statement on Tuesday night. The raid could generate an estimated €1.2bn to €2bn for the treasury by seizing reserves in commercial banks and shifting them to the central bank in Athens. But Greece's labour minister said his government would seek alternative solutions should mayors and local governors resist the measures. In a further sign of domestic troubles for the Leftist government, approval ratings for Syriza's negotiating strategy have fallen to just 45pc in April, down from 72pc in February. The debt impasse has also seen the country's economic fundamentals degenerate. Figures from eurostat show that 73.5pc of people who were unemployed in Greece in 2014, had been out of work for more than a year, compared with 67.1pc in 2013. Seven out of the ten EU regions with highest share of long term unemployment are also in Greece. Pressure on the government's coffers has grown ahead of a meeting of Europe's finance ministers on Friday. The European Central Bank is reported to have demanded Greek lenders take a 50pc haircut on the collateral they use to access the emergency life support from the ECB.
However, ECB governor Benoit Coeure denied allegations that the institution was "blackmailing" the country, insisting the ECB would continue funding lenders as long as they remained solvent.
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