“What should we celebrate? This is not a victory for the country. Where did they see the big opportunity? Is this contract useful?”. Such is the reaction of New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras containing his initial assessment of the contract from the summit regarding the "cut" of the Greek debt.
On Thursday morning, Antonis Samaras held numerous telephone conversations with his key close associates.
In a television statement, Mr. Samaras commented sharply on the new contract, emphasizing the necessity to preserve national sovereignty.
"The cycle for this government has closed", he said, and with this speech he pointed the way for early elections, a request which will be stressed by New Democracy in the next period, combined with a statement that there will be "another nine years of poverty."
It is expected that the leader of New Democracy will come to review his strategy as circumstances have changed since the decision for "cutting" the debt.
He continues to defend his position that he would vote against the new loan agreement, but as many "blue" functionaries say, a strategic political impasse has already formed for New Democracy. And this is because the main political slogan of the largest opposition party for renegotiating becomes weaker. In practice, Mr. Samaras is facing a fait accompli, as the contract renders his main proposal to renegotiate the memorandum.
"There is always room for negotiation," says the leadership of New Democracy and denies that the renegotiation is not feasible. "On the contrary, after the cut the need to restore the economy to a primary surplus becomes even more urgent than ever ", this is the position supported by the party headquarters.
A careful review of the actions, statements and positions of Mr. Samaras shows that the leader of New Democracy has taken care in advance to limit the scope of a future renegotiating to seperate elements of the decision, which will be imposed on Greece.
Samaras constantly says that if he wins the election, he will not challenge the objectives set by the creditors on the country neither the guidelines that are already outlined. Therefore, in a statement two days ago he put a priority on restoring the economy to create a primary surplus.
"Let us look into the small print as well," says a close associate of Samaras, who puts emphasis on the "muddy" parts of the contract. Despite the recognition that this is an important decision of the European Union, the "blue" economic headquarters, continues to argue that this contract does not mention anything about recovery of the economy. For some members of New Democracy, though they have not publicly stated this, the decision of the summit is a kind of "preventive coordinated bankruptcy”, as it happened in Uruguay in 2003 when the International Monetary Fund imposed controlled bankruptcy. "The concern was not to become Argentina, but ultimately they chose to make us the second Uruguay and Ecuador", notes New Democracy functionary, emphasizing that only in the case of Greece there was no suspension of payments, and "bankruptcy within the euro". "There should be a policy change in order to create the conditions for recovery", note experienced party leaders who fear that the next step is likely to be exiting the eurozone, something that nobody wants to happen.
The position of Antonis Samaras, who insists that "the details make the difference" - is that the viability of the debt depends not only on cutting, which had become inevitable due to the government policy but also due to the creation of high long-term surpluses and high rates of economic growth.
Mr. Samaras places particular emphasis on the issue of custody, because in case his party wins the probable election, there will be no room for maneuvers.
Therefore, New Democracy leaders argue that technical assistance is one thing and quite another is the crucial assignment of powers, noting that "decisions that are imposed on a government other factors are anti-democratic and unacceptable."
In practice they are not against the continuous supervision of the Greek economy, because in any case there was such supervision for some period of time also during the government of Kostas Karamanlis. "We will not allow becoming a protectorate" said Lazaridis Hrisantos - close adviser to Samaras. In any case, under the circumstances, Antonis Samaras does not intend his party to vote "for" the new contract, even if the needed votes are 180, because he believes that it binds the country for many years and therefore should be discussed by the Greek people.
"Follow the path of Ireland”
In the coming days and weeks it is expected that the European People's Party will exert serious pressure on New Democracy, so that the largest opposition party in Greece will demonstrate consensus and vote "for" the new contract.
"The problem does not come down to the parties but to the fate of Greece”, said the other day in front of Deutsche Welle, Othman Karas, the Austrian Vice-Chairman of the Parliamentary Group of the European People's Party. Othman Karras together with Frank Engel from Luxembourg, as the envoys of the European People's Party, met two weeks ago with Mr. Samaras at the headquarters of New Democracy in order to get informed of the intentions of the leader of the party.
Before the contract for the "cut" Joseph Daul, President of the European People's Party in Parliament, urged New Democracy to follow the example of its fraternal parties in Spain, Portugal and Ireland.
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