Greece Alexis Tsipras calls time on the debt front, but Berlin is there and, in the words of the Minister of Finance, defines Athens “irresponsible.” Rise in tone ahead of the crucial Eurogroup for today convened in Brussels in order to reach an agreement. But promises all uphill. The willingness of all parties is to reach an agreement, but are content to divide the different capitals. “We do not want new loans”, reiterates the greek premier Alexis Tsipras in an interview with the weekly magazine Stern, because “we need time, not money, to make reforms.” The piccata response Berlin arrives this morning from the microphones Deutschlandfunk Radio: “I’m sorry for the Greeks. They elected a government that is behaving in a rather irresponsible at the time,” said the German Finance Minister, Woflgang Schaeuble. “Greece – added the exponent of the Merkel government – must understand that you can not live beyond its means and continue to make proposals on how others should pay even more.”
But Tsipras has other plans in mind: his idea is “a solution where everyone can only win”, a “win-win solution,” says the German weekly, it spends sweet words for its current major antagonist: Chancellor Angela Merkel is “a very kind woman,” not at all “severe as one would expect from what is described in the press.”
The premier tends the greek hand to Germany also distancing himself from the cartoon depicting the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, in Nazi uniform, calling it “unfortunate”. Nevertheless, he adds, that the talks today will be “very difficult”, although it remains the basic trust.
The negotiations, although all prefer to speak of exchange of views or technical level meetings , continued throughout the weekend on the basis of the different texts submitted by the individual parts, but the positions remain far apart. Greece is not going to continue on the path of the current aid program, because it considers, as explained by the spokesman of the government, “unrealistic” expectations of a budget surplus of 3% in 2015 and 4.5% in 2016.
But the face of the other European countries seems to rally around Germany. The Financial Times reports that Ireland would have also taken a hard line, while France, by the mouth of his foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, says it is prepared to negotiate on the maturity of the debt, “but its cancellation is out of the question “. Meanwhile, the ECB president, Mario Draghi, pointing out that the policy of the central bank does not punish the Germans and not reward the weaker countries, prefers not to speak in detail of the situation in Athens, but stressed that “it makes no sense to speculate on a possible leaving the single currency. “
After the clash last night in consumatosi Eurogroup (between the need to ‘extend’ or ‘amend’ the current program of the Troika), the European finance ministers will sit again around a table to see how to match the needs of the greek government to put an end to austerity that is folding the country with those creditors who want certainty about debt repayment. Athens, which intends to open the chasing evaders placing the lighthouse on the flow of € 30 billion that has shifted from Greek banks to those in Switzerland, puts on the plate reducing the budget surplus for this and next year in the face of structural reforms “We want to reduce the positions of privilege” in the world of work and pensions, “but do not want to clash with the people,” added the spokesman of the government, which welcomed the new descent of 15,000 people in the square in the center of Athens . An event called “spontaneous” against Austerity imposed by the Troika.
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