Tsipras: Early elections, loan agreement negotiation and European Conference on Debt Crisis

  Posted by keeptalkinggreece in Politics

Leader of main opposition party and chairman of left-wing SYRIZA, Alexis Tsipras, wants early elections in order to negotiate the loan agreement between Greece and its lenders and a new ‘haircut’. Speaking to state broadcaster NET TV, Tsipras declared, “the loan agreement is already dead” and “it needs to be abolished”.
He stressed that early elections should take place in Greece and thus before the elections in Germany, in upcoming September.

“The country is in a hopeless course, a new negotiation is needed before the German elections.”
“The implementation of a (austerity) program that does not succeed and it’s wrong, as also confessed by the IMF- cannot continue.”

“The political system has never negotiated for the benefit of the Greek people. Even a five-year-old child does not believe that the program will render,” Tsipras stressed.
He sharply criticized Prime Minister Antonis Samaras  and wondered why the PM does not s for a new haircut of the Greek debt. On this occasion he ‘attacked’ Samaras, saying:

“His optimist message on the New Year showed a prime minister in a country like Luxembourg or Lichtenstein, not a man who understands the social problems of our country.
He celebrated the tranche disbursement, a tranche that simply helps the bank sector to avoid bankruptcy but not to save the society.”

A coalition government – even if they would win with absolute majority – and predicted the creation of new parties from the centre-left spectrum.
Tsipras: European Conference
In another interview to Bloomberg TV, Tsipras called on Europe to abandon austerity policies and stressed the neccessity for a European Conference, similar to the one in 1953 that brought debt relief to Germany.

“Europe must abandon austerity policies and convene a summit to make Greece’s debt sustainable and return the country to growth, said Alexis Tsipras, the nation’s main opposition leader.
“Our strategy, if we were to be elected in Greece, is to cancel austerity measures, cancel the memorandum of austerity,”Tsipras, who heads the Syriza party, told Bloomberg Television in New York on Jan. 25. “We must have a restructuring of Greece’s debt and renegotiation of the loan agreement.”

Tsipras said a European conference similar to one held in 1953, which brought debt relief to Germany, is necessary to solve the region’s crisis. It should accompany a plan such as the one proposed by former U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall in 1947, which channeled American aid to help rebuild Europe after World War II, that would revive economic growth in Greece and southern Europe, he said.” (full article Bloomberg)

What is clear, is that Tsipras and the IMF insist on a new haircut of the Greek debt. An approach rejected by the German government. No wonder that Antonis Samaras does not ask for one. Right?