Greek PM excludes bailout deal on ‘humiliating terms’

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has excluded the possibility of a bailout deal with its international creditors on “humiliating terms.”

“We have proven we are ready to make concessions in order to get a mutually acceptable deal,” said the premier at a central committee meeting with his ruling Syriza Party in the capital of Athens on Saturday.

Tsipras reiterated that his country demands “respect and corresponding concessions” from the partners.

Athens received two bailout packages in 2010 and 2012 worth a total of €240 billion ($272 billion) from the troika following its 2009 economic crisis. On May 12, the cash-strapped country tapped into money from its emergency funds to meet a due debt of 750-million-euro (USD-845-million) payment to the International Monetary Fund. However, it has been unable to borrow from the international markets over the past few years due to high borrowing rates.

Greece is currently in talks with its troika of international lenders, namely the European Commission, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the IMF to receive a 7.2-billion-euro (USD-7.9-billion) loan remaining from bailout funds promised to the country.

The country won some support in the latest round of the nation’s debt negotiations as it struggled to keep itself solvent. The lenders, however, are refusing to grant the loan unless Athens makes reforms in its labor market as well as in pensions and taxation policies in exchange for a new bailout loan.

“The architects of the most failed program in the history of the IMF insist on extreme positions in order not to accept their failure,” said Tsipras, accusing the IMF of sticking to unreasonable demands on the reforms.

“I want to send a clear message. These final days before the deal, those who want to contribute, let them do it. Those who don’t should keep silent,” said the anti-austerity premier.

Anti-austerity protest

Some 200 anti-austerity protesters held a demonstration in front of the German Embassy.

Later in a separate rally, staged outside the National Technical University of Athens, protesters reportedly set a bus on fire and burnt the EU flag above the police line.

There was a heavy clash between the riot police in Athens and the protesters, who threw stones and Molotov cocktail.  

The administration of Tsipras, whose leftist Syriza party won January 25 elections, has tried to renegotiate the terms of the country’s bailout it received in return for imposing harsh austerity measures.

During his electoral campaign, the 40-year-old vowed to reconsider the austerity measures, which have triggered a wave of unemployment and poverty and mounting dissatisfaction in the country.

MIS/NT

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