Athens (AFP) – The Greek government has played appeasement Saturday in Paris before embarking on a European tour aimed at rallying the most of the country against the austerity policies, facing a Germany still uncompromising <. / p>
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras asked Saturday in a statement released by his office “time to breathe” and assured “does not seek conflict.”
As he had said during his campaign, the leader of the radical left Syriza party has promised not to take any decision “unilateral” on the very thorny issue of the debt of the country
-. “Irresponsible”? –
In an interview in the morning, Chancellor Angela Merkel has again received a negative decision of any “delete”, even partial, of the Greek debt, held mainly by European states . The President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, even described the attitude of the Greek government as “irresponsible”.
It is against this hard line represented by Berlin that the Spanish anti-liberal party mobilized Saturday in Madrid tens of thousands of supporters, galvanized by the electoral victory of SYRIZA their ally.
Meanwhile in Athens, the boiling Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis tried to extinguish the fire that he had turned on Friday, breaking sharply with the “troika”. This delegation of experts from the IMF, the ECB (European Central Bank) and the European Union confirms the payment of aid to Greece in assessing its economic and fiscal policy.
In an interview to be published Sunday in the magazine To Vima, Mr Varoufakis softened his remarks and said he did not want to “waste time making the troika, because it is not authorized to discuss the substance and logic” of the aid package 240 billion euros in place from 2010 for Greece.
Now, it is this “logic” that Greece wants to see, starting with clear at least part of its debt 315 billion, the equivalent of 175% of its gross domestic product
-. The hired Lazard –
Athens to take this advice from the French company -américaine Lazard, including Vice President for Europe Matthieu Pigasse publicly pleaded Friday for a discount of Greek debt by as much as 100 billion euros.
It was to defend also a vast stimulus program (rehire officers, raising the minimum wage, aid to poor households) and the end of privatizations, including that of the iconic port of Piraeus, Messrs. Tsipras Varoufakis and began a tour of European capitals.
The Minister of Finance share on Saturday for Paris.
He will meet Sunday at 17:00 (1600 GMT) with the minister Michel Sapin, which already stated its intention to play the “hyphen” between Greece and Germany, then the economy minister Emmanuel Macron. Then he will see his British counterpart George Osborne in London on Monday, and Italian Pier-Carlo Padoan in Rome on Tuesday.
Mr. Tsipras begin, meanwhile, on Sunday by Cyprus. It will then go also in Rome on Tuesday and Wednesday in Paris.
For now, the Greek ministers have not planned to go to Berlin, and dialogue of the deaf therefore continues through . Press
The Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble assured in a Saturday interview: “If I were a responsible Greek politician, I do not mènerais debate on debt relief”.
– The rigor camp gives voice –
Germany is not alone: Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho refused any “conference that would be proposed to cancel or restructure the debt. “
In Berlin, it is understood that the Baltic countries are also advocates of tough on Greece.
This camp rigor on Saturday received the support of the Governor of the Central Bank of Finland Erkki Liikanen, member of the management of the ECB.
He said Saturday that the aid plan for Greece “had expired at the end of February, so a solution must be found, otherwise we can not continue to pay. “
The plan provides for the payment late February a new sum of seven billion euros, if Athens fulfills its commitments to reforms and fiscal discipline.
Greece can not afford to be released by the ECB, which supports its fragile banks themselves only source of state funding Greek.
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