Greece, Interior Minister: “There is no money for future payments to the IMF” – The Republic

ATHENS – Greece will not be able to pay the installments of the loan from the IMF because it does not have the money to do it. He told Mega TV Interior Minister Nikos Voutsis . “The four installments to the IMF expiring in June amounted to one billion and 600 million euro. This money will not be paid, because there is,” he said bluntly. Only to point out that Athens will pay only if there is agreement with the creditors. And stress, about the possible non-payment: “We do not want this, it is not our strategy. We are discussing, on the basis of our limited optimism, because there is a strong agreement so that the country is able to breathe. This It is the bet. ” Anyway Athens is determined to fight against the strategy of “suffocation” of creditors: “The policy of extreme austerity and unemployment in Greece is to be affected. Do not run away from this battle.”

Those are the comments of Voutsis more explicit never made so far on the possibility that Greece will end in default, if the talks fail. After months of negotiations with partners in the eurozone and the IMF, the government led by the left of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is still struggling with an agreement for the release of seven billion and 200 million euro in aid. The dossier of Athens will end probably also on the table of the G7 financial planning in Dresden during the next week.

With perhaps less peremptory tones but also net, Finance Minister Greek Yanis Varoufakis , he reiterated that his government has already done its part and warned that a Greek exit from the euro would be “catastrophic”, would be “the beginning of the end for the process of the single currency”. In an interview on the show’s Andrew Marr on the BBC , Varoufakis said that the government in Athens has made “huge steps” to facilitate an agreement in negotiations with international institutions and added that “now it is up to these institutions to do their part. ” “We went to meet them three-quarters of the way, now they have to come to us doing that last quarter of the way,” he added. So he made an argument that leads to the same conclusion lead the words of Voutsis: “Over the last four months, Greece has not only had to manage the payment of salaries and pensions, but had to pull out the 14% of GDP to meet commitments with international creditors. At some point we will not be able to do so “.

The line pursued by the government Tsipras in negotiations with international financial institutions is supported by 54% of Greeks, although the situation has become more tense in recent weeks. A survey conducted by Public Issue also shows that 71% want that Athens remains in the euro and that 68% believe that a return to the drachma would worsen the economic situation. 59% of Greeks asks that the executive should not bow to the demands of financial institutions, 89% are opposed to cuts in pensions and 81% is hostile to any case of mass layoffs.

Arguments:

Greece

Stakeholders :

Alexis Tsipras

Nikos Voutsis

YanisVaroufakis