“If this is Europe, then we don’t want this Europe”, Aristidis Dimoupulos, a marketing professor in Athens, told the Associated Press.
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Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras appealed to his party’s lawmakers on Friday to back a tough reform package after abruptly offering last-minute concessions to try to save the country from financial meltdown.
Tsipras rejected a similar plan last month, sparking an immediate crisis over his country’s finances as the creditors – the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the European Cental Bank pulled the plug on the country’s second debt rescue. “There are no dedicated instruments in the ESM toolkit to swap sovereign bonds”.
“Mr. [Prime Minister Alexis] Tsipras has not approached us for any help”, Putin told a news conference in the Russian city of Ufa following a security summit and a meeting of the BRICS emerging economies.
Greece’s new finance minister Euclid Tsakalotos stressed the urgency of the loan request “given the fragility of our banking system” and lack of liquidity.
But some were furious at the deep spending cuts in the proposals. “Why did it not make corrections to the economic agenda of earlier Greek governments?”
Germany, which is eager to keep new support to Greece to a minimum, is bound to clash this weekend with the IMF over the fund’s demands for steep debt write-downs and its high financing estimates. “On Sunday the Greek people voted against these measurements”.
“What will now be crucial for Berlin is confirmation from the institutions that Greece’s own measures are sufficient to move the country towards debt sustainability”, Eurasia Group analysts including Mujtaba Rahman wrote in a note to clients. The government agreed late Thursday on most of the terms demanded by the creditors.
Any new Greek rescue needs to be approved unanimously by euro zone members.
Though German officials would not be drawn on the merits of the Greek proposal, French President Francois Hollande said they are “serious and credible”.
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi declared himself “more optimistic” that a deal would be done. “From here on there is a minefield, and I don’t have the right to dismiss this or hide it from the Greek people”, he said. The country may be on the edge of the precipice, they say, but Greece will ultimately seal a deal and retain its place in the eurozone.
It has presented detailed plans about how it will fix its economy in exchange for more cash, and the Greek Parliament is set to vote on them Friday night. At the same time, the Nasdaq composite rose by 55 points/1.1 percent at 4,978, while the Dow Jones industrial average also registered a 186 point/1.1 percent rise to 17,734.
“There will be a judgment, probably later today”, Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who will chair an emergency session of his euro-area counterparts scheduled in Brussels on Saturday.
“We got a mandate to bring a better deal than the ultimatum that the Eurogroup gave us, but certainly not a mandate to take Greece out of the euro zone”, he said.
Greek banks are closed and withdrawals at cash machines are limited to just $67 (60 euros) a day.
“The government has to find a deal with its European partners no matter what”.
“Syriza campaigned saying they were different than other parties, but we can see they lie and manipulate like the others”, said Elina Tassi, 33, a retail store worker.
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“That’s not what the Greeks voted for”.
