Panagiotis Lafazanis, energy minister in the first SYRIZA government, claimed he had agreed with Moscow in 2015 that Russia would make a down-payment for a gas pipeline so that the money could be used to finance rexit if the country would decide to leave the euro zone. Lafazanis told Vima …
Read More »
If Germany wants Grexit & Lafazanis wants Drachma, the logical conclusion is: Berlin supports Popular Unity!
Many Greeks have been wondering what is the purpose of the snap elections scheduled for September 20th? Some answer the question replying “Tsipras could not govern with the support of the opposition but without the support of his own MPs,” others warn that “with such a huge debt and such …
Read More »
Lafazanis’ Popular Unity doesn’t exclude Grexit and Return to Drachma
This is a very clear stance before the elections: Popular Unity, the party of SYRIZA rebels around former energy minister Panagiotis Lafazanis will pledge to abolish the bailout program and cancel austerity plans, will not exclude an orderly exit from the Eurozone as an option and introduce anew a national …
Read More »
Greece’s politicians are wasting time trying to avoid early elections
After three days of ‘exploring options to form a new coalition government with other political parties, leader of conservative New Democracy Vaggelis Meimarakis returned the mandate to the President of the Republic. “I really do not understand, why we have to go to early elections,” Meimarakis told reporters on Monday …
Read More »
SYRIZA split: Left Platform to run for elections, it may even claim mandate to negotiate for a new Greek govenrment
Twenty five SYRIZA lawmakers mainly from Left Platform of former Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis split from the party Tsipras’ party on Friday morning and formed their own independent group with the name “Popular Unity”. The anti-Memorandum party will run for the elections called on Thursday after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras …
Read More »
Varoufakis’ Plan B: Hack FinMin’s software, introduce parallel banking system
The first scenario that wanted ex Energy Minister Lafazanis to seize the Greece’s assets and arrest the governor of Bank of Greece did not thrill the public. Now a new scenario with much more suspense claims that former Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis wanted to hack the Ministry’s software, hijack taxpayers’ …
Read More »
Tsipras’ next battle: Government majority and rebels in his own party
After having survived the brutal Euro Summit in Brussels, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is facing another cruel battle today: to secure a government majority in the Parliament. With some 30-32 lawmakers of his own party openly denouncing the Brussels agreement, Tsipras most possibly will see today that the seats of …
Read More »
Greece and Russia sign Memorandum on Turkish Stream pipeline
All good on the Eastern Front. Greece and Russia signed a memorandum of cooperation on the Turkish Stream gas pipeline, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is going to meet President Vladimir Putin in the afternoon. The Greek delegation officially attends the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum. Friday morning, Russia and Greece …
Read More »
Tsipras – Putin talk BRICS & Energy, as a US-Greek “war” rages over Turkish Stream
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Russian President Vladimir Putin had a telephone conservation Friday noon. The two leader reportedly talked about the Greek participation in the BRICS Development Bank and the Turkish Stream, a joint natural gas pipeline between Russia and Turkey. According to Greek government sources and Russian …
Read More »
Energy Minister Lafazanis: Greece to invest $2 bn in Turkish Stream, will sign memorandum asap
Greece plans to invest $2 billion in the construction of Gazprom’s Turkish Stream natural gas project. A memorandum on the political support of the project is reportedly to be signed late June during the International Economic Forum. “A memorandum on political support for the gas pipeline project will be prepared …
Read More »
Gazprom CEO in Athens for talks with PM Tsipras, Energy Minister Lafazanis
Alexei Miller, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chairman of the Management Committee of Russian energy company Gazprom will be in Athens tomorrow, Tuesday to talks with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis. Miller, Tsipras and Lafazanis will discuss “current energy issues of interest,” Greek …
Read More »
Business and claims as usual: “Greece is defaulting” each and every day
Over the Easter days, Greece was exposed to a barrage of negative media reports claiming that a “Greek default” was “imminent” if the bailout talks between the Greek government and the creditors fail. The claims continued also today with the aim to increase pressure ahead of the Euro Group meeting …
Read More »
Greece’s Credit Event risk averted, but EU keeps up the dirty work with political pressure
“I welcome confirmation by the Minister that payment owing would be forthcoming on April 9,” managing director of International Monetary Fund told reporters after her meeting with Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis on Easter Sunday in Washington. Going to meeting with Varoufakis: Christine Lagarde of IMFogue in Anna-Wintour-look. Or just …
Read More »
Greek government is trapped in the bailout talks with creditors
Greece is trapped in bailout talks with the creditors taking place in Brussels. The reforms list the Greek government submitted to the creditors is considered to be on “positive basis” but not sufficient enough. The lenders want measures with “stable performance and specific results”, that is austerity measures with immediate …
Read More »
Privatizations in Energy sector cause rift in Greek government
Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis declared absolute negative towards privatizations in Greece’s energy sector. “There is not going to be any privatization in DEH [Public Power Company] in DEPA [natural gas distribution operator ] or ELPE [Petroleum Company]. I repeat what I have said until today,” Lafazanis told daily TA NEA. …
Read More »
UPD ASE plunges -9.24%, after ministers announce to halt privatizations of PPC and OLP
It comes as expected. Hardly they were sworn-in, ministers of Greece’s new coalition left-wing/nationalists government SYRIZA-Independent Greeks made a revolutionary step: they announced the halt of privatizations. Not that privatizations of state assets were been moving in the same speed the Troika has been demanding in the last five years. …
Read More »