The government of Alexis Tsipras, strongly supported by the Greeks, was preparing Sunday for Monday’s Eurogroup whose fate depends on the country, with the desire to do everything possible to reach an agreement without announcing concessions.
“Our position is based on logic, is strong, and will lead to an agreement, even at the last minute or even after the last minute,” said in an interview with Kathimerini on Sunday, Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis.
According to Varoufakis, as the Greeks as the rest of the EU “will do whatever it takes to avoid a result that weakens the unity of the euro zone.”
The Minister said he was convinced that “Europe can enter into agreements from honorable honorable disagreements.” He referred to a level of optimism “important” on the eve of the meeting on Monday 19 finance ministers of the Eurogroup.
This meeting is critical but risky. The new radical left government Syriza Alexis Tsipras wants to break with aid programs imposed on Greece for five years by the EU, ECB and IMF, which have significantly affected the daily life of the population, in exchange for 240 billion aid promises.
Greece seems determined to make reforms, but that would be contained in a new program which Athens could control this time.
The spokesman of the government Sakellaridis Gabriel Sunday, said on Skai TV that “the government is determined to meet its obligations” vis-à-vis the voters’ will not continue the program as it was previously ” . While finding a solution “which benefits the whole world,” he told himself.
“There is no plan B,” announced his part Mr. Varoufakis .
But the EU, for now, does not want to commit to an “extension” of the current program, which ends on 28 February. The risk of a Greek exit of the Eurozone is important if there is no agreement on Monday and the country is thus forced to not be able to meet its financial commitments.
– The support of the people, our strength –
Discussions are still held Saturday, in the form of “exchange of views for a better understanding of each other’s positions,” said an EU official on saturday. These discussions should release a report to be presented to the Eurogroup.
Now, Mr. Varoufakis warned in an interview that there are still sticking points, including privatization, on which the new government largely wants to come back, or the rights of employees in the company.
On Friday, the head of the Eurogroup Jeroen Dijsselbloem, said he was “very pessimistic” about the possibility of an agreement on monday. For his part, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras also spoke Saturday at the prospect of “difficult negotiations”.
“The support of the Greek people will again be our strength,” he added.
The government has indeed behind a large majority of Greeks, 60.6% of those surveyed by Kapa Research for the newspaper To Vima on Sunday have a good opinion of him, against 37.1% who think otherwise . The Greeks, however only 48.1% considering a successful negotiations, and 51.1% failed.
The government also relied on demonstrations in support of his claims Sunday in Greece, Paris and Lisbon. Saturday in Rome, already, hundreds of demonstrators marched to the call for organizations, trade unions and left parties to support the anti-austerity Greek government positions.
On Wednesday, at least 15,000 people had peacefully gathered in Syntagma Square in Athens and another 5,000 in Thessaloniki, the second largest city
Tsipras government also received an unexpected support Sunday. former Socialist Prime Minister George Papandreou, who was the first to accept Yet in 2010 his country to be put under the assistance program, wrote to the 28 European leaders to ask them to find a “mutually beneficial agreement”, emphasizing all the efforts already made not the Greeks, who still suffer from a more than 25% unemployment.
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