German Chancellor Angela Merkel is scheduled to visit Athens on Tuesday and Greece is preparing to receive her with protests.

Along with the country's two major labour unions, Syriza party leader Alexis Tsipras has been urging citizens to join organised rallies and stated that "Mr. Samaras [Greece's Prime Minister] said that we should welcome Mrs Merkel as she deserves. We completely agree."

Samaras had praised Merkel's first visit in five years. "It is a very positive development that Ms. Merkel has accepted our invitation. We will welcome her as befitting a leader of a great, friendly nation such as Germany," he said.

Greece continues its attempts to reach an agreement on budget cuts with the Troika (representatives from the European Commission, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank). They continue to haggle over the required implementation of €13.5bn in austerity measures while the international creditors have questioned the viability of some of these proposals. The step is required for Athens to receive the next tranche of bailout money.

European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Olli Rhen said he expects there to be a "positive and supportive statement on Greece's progress" at Monday's Eurogroup meeting. However, he did say that the Troika report will take some time though he noted that "it's important that this can be concluded in the coming weeks."

In this context, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said that Merkel's visit did not imply that Greece had approval for the next disbursement. "The Chancellor will not discuss with Greece a matter that the Troika must report on first," Schäuble stated in an interview with ZDF. He added that Athens must fulfil its obligations in order to receive the next pay-out.

JM

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