Galery

1

The first meeting of the parliamentary group of the ruling SYRIZA party after reaching an agreement on the extension of the bailout to Greece for another four months is taking place behind closed doors and in full confidentiality. It has become a marathon having started at 10:00 am and sources expect it to continue until 08:00 pm.

Despite the scarce and fragmentary pieces of information, which are leaking out from the closed-door meeting of lawmakers with difficulty, the members of the radical left are seriously concerned about the content of the list of reforms that the Eurogroup approved yesterday, insisting on detailed explanations regarding the actions provided therein.

The document has anyway sparked different reactions among the members and deputies of the radical left, the first among the opponents of the agreement being politician, veteran, and MEP Manolis Glezos. As GRReporter informed its readers, his position was supported by his colleague in the European Parliament Sofia Sakorafa and Maria Bolari who failed to enter the new Greek parliament.

The main criticism is that, through the new agreement with the lenders, SYRIZA will continue to implement the memorandum in a subtle way, "renaming meat flesh," having accepted that supervision by the "institutions" (formerly known as the Troika) continue and having committed to refrain from unilateral action.

The criticism comes mostly from the left wing of SYRIZA in the form of articles on the website iskra.gr.

More cautious, but still sharp, in his expression is MP Kostas Lapavitsas, who expressed doubts as to wether SYRIZA would be able to fulfil its social programme after Yanis Varoufakis’s letter of reforms to the lenders.

Despite Alexis Tsipras’ call to MPs to be careful and not to give information on the subject of the discussion in the hall, the Greek media reported that the first reactions today came from Minister of Productive Reconstruction, Energy and Environment Panagiotis Lafazanis. He was especially critical of the content of the agreement and paid particular attention to the commitment to carry out privatisations.

During his address, Tsipras shared with his colleagues all the steps from his initial trips to European capitals to the conclusion of the agreement, stressing that all party members should be careful, "to be able to govern, not only to negotiate."

As for the list of reforms, the Greek Prime Minister stated that his office has managed to negotiate changes which are based on the social programme of SYRIZA that was announced in Thessaloniki in September 2014. According to Tsipras, the achievements of the new Greek government are as follows: the separation of the loan contract from the memorandum, easing Greece out of the memoranda as a frame of the policy of austerity, the interim agreement which escapes the plan of imposing economic pressure and a swift end of the government of the Left, the cancellation of the obligation to adhere to high primary surpluses and the stability of the banking system.

The reactions will continue during the forthcoming meeting of the economic team of the cabinet tonight, which will discuss the pressing issue of privatisation and other matters included in the list of reforms provided.

It is worth noting that Panagiotis Lafazanis had said earlier today that the government in Athens would not hold the competition for the privatisation of the company that operates the electricity system in Greece, although the document that was approved yesterday clearly states that the government will not halt privatisations that have already been launched.

Immediately after these statements, Berlin began warning that the Greek government cannot unilaterally decide to delay or halt privatisations. Spokesman for the German Ministry of Finance Martin Jaeger stressed that if Athens intended to delay some of the competitions "it should coordinate its actions in close cooperation with the Troika."

He pointed out that, in recent weeks, the European partners of Greece had largely lost trust in it, adding that it should be built in the future.

At the same time, Jaeger avoided commenting on the probability of concluding a third programme of financial assistance to Greece. According to the information in the newspaper Rheinische Post, that potential third financial package would amount to 20 billion euro.

Before Jaeger, German Minister of Finance Wolfgang Schaeuble himself referred to the lack of confidence in Athens. He noted that he doubts the relevance of the commitments of the Greek cabinet to implement the structural reforms.

"The question now is whether we can trust the assurances of the Greek government. The doubts in Germany are not small and it should be clear," Schaeuble said, adding that the Eurogroup had not made the decision easily.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel in turn appreciated the achievement of a "starting point" of the negotiations with the new Greek cabinet, stressing that many tasks are in store for Athens that it must complete.