“If they cave here and say they will support the banking system so we can promote further re-negotiations, then it kind of undermines that tough stand”.
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“You know, there was a promise for today”, said Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite. “However, in light of the referendum, the likelihood of the Greek government acceding to creditors’ demands has diminished”, the strategists said in a note.
Tsipras can claim a strong domestic mandate to negotiate after 61 percent voted “no” to the latest creditor proposals.
So it was with surprise and anger that European leaders learned Tsipras did not yet have a written proposal for new rescue aid.
“I’m extremely somber about this summit”.
“They [creditors] wanted a “Yes” to prevail so they could humiliate the Greek Prime Minister, to go weakened, under these conditions of funding asphyxiation, and be a pushover”.
He was first elected to parliament in May 2012, and re-elected in January 2015, when his party swept to power and Alexis Tsipras to the premiership.
Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the eurozone’s top official, says the pressure is on Greece to come up with fresh economic proposals that meet the requirements of its partners in the single currency bloc.
He said the Spanish government is “open” to new negotiations with Greece. He predicted a full political deal could be reached in two or three weeks.
Even German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Tsipras he was dancing close to the financial abyss. But it said Greece had to provide more collateral, a move that will make it more hard to access the vital funds in the future.
An official from a eurozone nation said that Greece’s failure to bring clear proposals to an earlier meeting of finance ministers caused widespread frustration.
“Everybody was mad”, said the official, who asked not to be identified because he was commenting on a closed meeting.
As Alexis Tsipras heads to Brussels to try to restart talks with Greece’s exasperated creditors, many Greeks remain surprisingly optimistic about the chances of a new deal being forged, despite grave warnings from Berlin and Brussels that patience has been exhausted and no further concessions will be offered.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said Greece needs to enact reforms that will spur economic growth and comply with obligations to pay off its debt to remain part of the eurozone. Banks have been shuttered for over a week and cash withdrawals have been limited to 60 euros a day.
He did not name names but may have been referring to German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, who has made no secret of his scepticism about Greece’s fitness to stay in the euro and last week suggested a possible “temporary” exit. Small businesses, lacking use of credit cards or money from bank accounts, were left to rely on cash from diminishing purchases from customers. “Overall the Greeks played much more smartly with much more courage than the Europeans and this is potentially because they have more to lose”.
Giorgos Kafkaris, a 77-year-old pensioner, was among Greeks standing in line to withdraw cash at an Athens ATM on Tuesday. But I’m afraid that if the hardliners in Europe win, they will tell him to take the existing deal or face an exit from the euro. “The good thing is we had sorted things out earlier and we had 200-300 euros set aside”, he said. “I am not taking on this job at the easiest point in Greek history”, he said.
“I don’t think anything has changed yet but I believe the situation will change for the better now”, said Vaggelis Arkadinos, a 47-year-old who has stopped paying his rent and utility bills because of a cash shortage.
Also Monday, in a sign seen by some analysts as conciliatory, Greece’s outspoken finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, resigned after repeated clashes with global lenders over bailout terms.
He was replaced by the Oxford-educated economist Euclid Tsakalotos, who will attend the Tuesday meeting and is regarded as more diplomatic than his predecessor.
Investors were cautious on Tuesday, with stock markets down and the euro 0.7 per cent lower.
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Greece’s banks are to stay closed on Tuesday and Wednesday.
