“Negotiations with creditors will not be easy,” but “we will negotiate a new agreement – a bridge between Greece previous programs and the new“” Yanis Varoufakis said in his first speech as the country’s new Finance Minister, while he was receiving his new portfolio by ex FinMin Gkikas Hardouvelis. He went on to say that he had agree with Euro Zone head Jeroen Dijsselbloem to “stop Far West scenarios,” and that there will be “no uncertainty.”
Referring to negotiations with its European partners, argued that “there will be no duel, there are no threats, there will be no question of who will fall first.”
– Europe has demonstrated that it can find solutions. The threatening implies from the side of the Europeans oppose the willingness to cooperate.
– We favor a frugal life with dignity. Growth is not Porsche and Cayenne in the narrow Greek streets.
-We are determined to change the logic that led to the economic crisis
– We will cut expenses of Finance Ministry in order to re-hire the cleaning ladies (sacked by ND/PASOK gov’t)
Hardouvelis: “new government should ask for new extension on bailout talks” (huh? Samaras’ gov’t knew better? )
Jeroen Dijsselbloem is due to Athens on upcoming Friday.
Varoufakis meets the cleaners, fired in 2013 when Greece had to show to Troika “big numbers of lay-offs in the public administration”. 320 cleaners were supposed to be hired again when a court found their lay-off as against the Constitution. Varoufakis reportedly said today that ” general consultants will be fired so that the cleaners will be re-hired.”
PS I am not a big fan of Varoufakis, but in his speech he sounds consensual and logical. Then how can you negotiate if at odds with each other? What? No negotiation? Just dictatorial imposition? That’s a No-No… But can logic win over creditors’ money?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-01-27/greece-begins-great-pivot-toward-russia
The point is, is SYRIZA going to support the Eurobank and Alpha bank ? Ore is SYRIZA choosing for the Greek people and let the banks go bankrupt like thousands of small Greek business ?
If SYRIZA is going to support banks that failed doing good business, is SYRIZA then also going to support the many Greek family business that are on the edge of going bankrupt/did go bankrupt already ?
That will make the position of SYRIZA- directly clear, I think, while the bail-out money for the banks must be payed by the Greek people.
What’s left for negotiations? Syriza already cancelled most reforms, in just three days! Don’t you read the news, kt? There’s nothing to discuss anymore, the Troika will stop support and Greece will go broke when payments are due on February 28th. Some time later, Tsipras will hand out shiny new Drachma notes. He must have planned this right from the start or else he wouldn’t have ruined any chance for a deal.
Now, I’m all for the Grexit, but that Syriza wrecks havoc on the economy, stopping the Chinese investment and even fooling around with the extremely important tourist sector does concern me. This will end badly for the Greek people.
How do you like this so far, kt? Great cinema, lots of drama, isn’t it?