Greek Interior Minister: No money to pay the IMF, if no deal with creditors

Nothing changed over the weekend. Greece found no money to pay the international Monetary Fund on June 5th, creditors found no way to agree on bailout talks. The result is logically: no deal, no money. precisely, No money to the IMF.

Interior Minister Nikos Voutsis said it clearly:  Greece cannot make payments to the IMF next month unless it achieves a deal with creditors and the bailout tranche of €7.2 billion finally arrives in Athens.

“The four installments to the IMF in June are €1.6 billion. The money will not be given and it is not there to be given, Nikos Voutsis told a morning program at private Mega TV on Sunday.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had made it also very clear urging creditors to compromise and described as “unacceptable” the creditors’ tactic to use “economic asphyxiation as pressure means.” He stressed that Greece is willing to make compromises in order to achieve a “mutually beneficial agreement” but creditors should do the same. “Greece cannot take more austerity,” Alexis Tsipras said on Saturday.

So far no signs of compromise willingness has come from the creditors’ side.

Greek media continue their reporting on “creditors’ exorbitant demands” scenarios on Value Added Tax hikes, raise of retirement age, changes in labor and social security … in short that the creditors’ demands is the continuation of the strict austerity as such. That’s nothing new.

Some government official even said that creditors’ demand that “the main pension is calculated according to insured contributions would lead to monthly pensions of €300- €320 per month.” That’s nothing new, too.

We had reported it about it in the context of the first or second Memorandum of Understanding. And if I am not wrong I had proposed that the social security should be free and not mandatory for employees and self-employed. But this would mean a major reform of the Greek outdated insurance system… only that no creditors dared made such a proposal.

I don’t remember exactly which MoU was demanding the overhaul of the social security system and the so-called “reform” was targeting “cuts.” Nothing else.

Anyway, I don’t remember which MoU it was, I’m too lazy to search for the link and it doesn’t really matter, after all. As I said: What creditors demand is really nothing new. They stick to their bailout program that has proven to be based on totally false grounds bringing nothing but a vicious circle of debts, recession, one in four Greeks unemployed, impoverished households and zero growth.

So, now what? Impasse? Deadlock? Default?

Defense Minister and SYRIZA’s junior coalition government partner Panos Kammenos said Monday morning that a deal will be reached “within next hours.”

A deal 10 whole days before Greece’s Doomsday, June 5th? I don’t think so. Creditors will “constructively” exhaust every minute and every second until the very last day to keep up the pressure on Greece.