Greek Parliament Speaker Rejects Salary Cuts for MPs

With an incredibly high youth unemployment rate of 75% in some parts of the country and 20% of the nation now in poverty, Greece's parliamentary speaker has nevertheless rejected calls for MPs' generous salaries to be slashed.

Evangelos Meimarakis, who has been the speaker of the Hellenic Parliament since June 2012, said the body's system for paying MPs is enshrined in the Greek Constitution and that his hands were tied.

"People's anger is understandable, but the reactions from certain deputies are not. We cannot cut MP salaries," Meimarakis told Greek TV channel Mega.

But the 59-year-old said the embattled county's politicians could donate some of their vainglorious wages to charities, though he did not disclose if he would be following his own advice.

The speaker, who cannot be accused of populism, also suggested talks could be held over a reduction or removal of the large tax breaks MPs receive on top of their plush monthly salaries of €5,760 euros ($7,808, £4,808).

The announcement comes as the country's lenders expressed fear that Greek's fragile coalition government will miss its budgetary surplus target of €2.75bn in 2014 unless it imposes new budget cuts on wages and pensions or increases taxes.

Meimarakis, his tattered nation now tipped to erupt in strikes against further austerity measures, may as well adopt his British counterpart's wife's social media tactics and see if he can "#innocentface" his way out of this PR disaster.