The leftist leader hit out at the “strange position” of the creditors just minutes before going into an eleventh-hour meeting with key lenders including IMF chief Christine Lagarde and the European Union.
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There’s been no movement since Greece’s creditors (particularly the global Monetary Fund) rejected the country’s proposed deal yesterday.
(AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza). A woman waits for clients in a Greek’s souvenirs shop in the touristic area of Plaka in central Athens, Thursday, June 25, 2015.
They include broad pension cuts, higher revenue from sales tax, and a faster elimination of tax exemptions – demands that are likely to fuel dissent within the government if accepted.
New (KOSDAQ: 160550.KQ – news) plans submitted Sunday by Greece aim make eight billion euros in savings, mostly through new taxes on the wealthy and businesses, VAT increases and a cut in defence spending. “I think it’s more impressive than anything else, it’s not frightening or awful but rather, they are doing it well”.
Tense discussions… French President Francois Hollande, left, speaks with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker after a group photo at an EU summit.
In a sign of the passions involved, dozens of anti-austerity protesters waving Greek flags gathered at the police barricades around the summit and chanted slogans against the “Troika”, as the three creditor institutions used to be known, an AFP reporter said.
Greece has to repay a 1.6-billion-euro (about 1.79 billion USA dollars) loan to the IMF by the end of this month.
Any Greek agreement will also need to deal with what comes next, with EU officials suggesting an extension of the bailout until the end of the year, followed by a possible third aid package to keep Greece afloat.
A separate EU official said that without a deal by Saturday, ministers would turn their attention to managing the potential consequences of a default for Greece and the wider euro region.
Elected on an anti-bailout platform in January, Tsipras’ left-wing Syriza party had promised to scrap all austerity measures and demand forgiveness on a chunk of the country’s bailout debt.
A failure to reach agreement with its creditors and a default on its debts could force Greece out of the eurozone, which would be hugely painful for the country.
Greek officials have said all possibilities remain open, including that of not reaching an agreement.
“We are at a critical moment,” Greek Labor Minister Panos Skourletis warned on private Antenna television.
And they want defense expenditure to be slashed by 200 million euros instead of the proposed 400 million euros. Now they will meet again only hours before the summit.
However, he warned, an alternative of no solution and a break in ties with Greece’s European partners would be far worse.
If no deal is struck quickly, she said, Greece could see “capital controls as early as next week”.
The official said the government was pushing for an improved proposal on Saturday. He noted investors had left the country and said many no longer had faith in the government.
“Bank deposits will return”, Stathakis said.
“The effort to restore exhausting measures shows the blackmail and pressure against Greece is culminating”, Syriza party parliamentary spokesman Nikos Filis said on Mega television. Larry is our main news editor.
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Paul Barkely says, “I find what the Greeks are doing, the finance minister and the prime minister, is pretty brilliant”. The European Central Bank has had to increase the amount of emergency credit that Greek banks can draw on every working day since Friday.
