The Greek Finance Minister, Yanis Varoufakis has advanced his visit to Paris where he will be on Saturday. He will meet with Michel Sapin Sunday at 17 hours. Alexis Tsipras will come to him Wednesday. A European program of visits in which the new Greek government should assert its outright rejection of the troika
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The Greek government will start on Saturday in Paris a European tour to count its allies in the anti-austerity offensive. The Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, advanced his trip to Paris, where he arrived Saturday instead of Monday. He will meet his counterpart Michel Sapin Sunday at 17 hours and the two men will make a “joint statement” to the press at 18:30. It was originally scheduled to begin by traveling to London Sunday before Paris. The last minute change of plans was decided at the initiative of the Greek Minister.
Mr. Varoufakis and Alexis Tsipras, Greek Prime Minister and leader of the radical left Syriza party, announced this tour, when Greece intends to do from top to bottom review its relations with its international creditors. The two men planned to travel to Paris, then, on Saturday for the Minister of Finance, and Wednesday for prime minister, but also in Rome, where they will find both Tuesday. The visit program does not include Germany, the country most violently opposed to any discount on receivables of Greece. Germany has also recalled the good memories of Athens Saturday. Chancellor Angela Merkel told the daily Hamburger Abendblatt there would be no “ new debt relief ‘, one of the iconic promises of the new Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. And behind 76% of Germans are against such a deletion, according to a poll published Friday.
Out with the troika
Bluff, unconsciousness or true determination, the Greek government was ready Friday to end the Troika to give up seven billion euros EU expected to end of February, while the state coffers are already vulnerable, bringing fears of a Greek exit from the euro zone . The Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis reiterated indeed officially before the head of the eurozone Jeroen Dijsselbloem remarks made by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and by itself for several days.
Greece wants to have “the greatest cooperation with the institutions” such as the EU, the ECB or the IMF, but has not “intend to cooperate” with what he called “a delegation Tripartite, anti-European, built on a shaky foundation, “the troika. Since 2010, these experts from the three major institutions, regularly travel to Athens to dictate to the government that it needs to undertake reforms in exchange for 240 billion euros have largely been paid to him to save the country from bankruptcy.
This regular presence, under heavy police surveillance, had become quite intolerable to the Greeks, the first victims of the crisis with more than 25% unemployment, and wages divided by two. They saw an infantilization of their country. To the point that the last two meetings, under the previous government, took place in Paris. These experts had to decide the end of February if Greece had made enough reforms to deserve the last seven billion of EU aid plan. With statements from Friday, this deadline seems null and void, and the Greek government gives no sign that it will request an extension.
“The seven billion We do not want “
Mr. Varoufakis observed indeed that there would be no logic to “criticize the program while calling for its extension.” Already on Thursday questioned by the New York TImes Mr. Varoufakis stated: “The seven billion, we do not want, what we want is to rethink the entire program.” Already last week, yet candidate, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said that as of February “meant nothing and was just intended to create a sense of urgency for the next government.”
During the joint press conference with Mr. Varoufakis Mr. Dijsselbloem – who had earlier met Mr Tsipras – appeared very tense, can only recall “ignoring the agreements is not the right path to take. ” Is that the implications of the Greek position can be enormous: “I think the probability of a Grexit (a Greek exit from the euro zone) took a few percentage points,” observed Alexander Delaigue, Professor of Economics at Saint-Cyr. “A solution where everyone saves face away,” he thought.
“These people do not bluff, but Greece will not manage to reach end of February, was alarmed Theodore Pelagidis, the think tank Brookings, Bloomberg. “The situation will get worse by the day, with the front line the banks of the country,” he said. According to Kathimerini newspaper in fact, there is currently less than two billion euros into the coffers of the Greek state, which have disappeared in late February. And public finances are even worse than the Greeks for some stopped paying their taxes during the election campaign, waiting to see what would come out of the polls.
“New European deal”
What seeks Greece’s pretty clear, “a European New Deal”, as explained by Mr. Varoufakis Wednesday. That is, try to find a flaw in the euro area to try to convince some countries to come together against fiscal orthodoxy defended in particular by Germany. Thus Mr. Tsipras and he will travel next week to see their counterparts in France and Italy, seen as the major countries that could be more sensitive to anti-austerity speech.
The other big claim of Greece is renegotiating its debt. Mr. Dijsselbloem opposed Friday at the “conference” desired by Athens about it, and do not reject the IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde. He dryly noted that “this conference is, and that’s the Eurogroup.” Now the French banker Matthieu Pigasse, head of Lazard to advise the Greek banking restructuring fund for his part felt that a restructuring was “absolutely necessary” and required “to halve the debt held by public institutions in Greece “, roughly 100 billion euros.
All these announcements have disrupted the Athens Stock Exchange, which has relapsed -1.59% while the Greek 10-year bond had jumped to more than 11.5%, indicating high confidence of the markets.
Source AFP
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