In two separate tweets, Alexis Tsipras took to Twitter to lam- bast the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the European Central Bank.
“The repeated rejection of equivalent measures by certain institutions never occurred before – neither in Ireland nor Portugal”, the Greek Prime Minister wrote in his post, suggesting that the impasse in negotiations with international lenders was not over the value of the cuts being proposed by Athens, but rather as to who the Greek Government had identified to be subjected to additional austerity.
He underlined this sentiment in a subsequent tweet in which he assumed an accusatory tone: “This odd stance seems to indicate either there is no interest in an agreement or that special interests are being backed.”
The leftist Greek Government has refused to enforce cuts which it says will require extreme sacrifices from the lower and middle classes, instead saying it will raise funds by taxing the rich.
The EU has replied that this is unacceptable as it would stem any hope Greece has of economic recovery and purely pave the way for future bailouts.
Negotiators from the EU had hoped for an agreement by lunch time on Thursday, especially as it did not want Greece to dominate the agenda of the European Council summit which began in Brussels on Thursday afternoon and was scheduled to last until Friday evening.
While the issue of migration is top of the agenda of the meeting of the EU’s 28 heads of state, the Greek stalemate is set to have an influence on the Council meeting.
Greece has until 30 June to repay 1.6 billion euros or head for bankruptcy, leading to its exit from the euro zone and possibly the European Union.
Current negotiations have centred on the EU and the IMF demanding that Athens enforce deeper austerity before they hand over a 7.2 billion euro tranche in bailout funds which would ensure Greece’s financial survival at least until the end of the year.
While Portugal has unavoidably been dragged into this debacle (see The Portugal News 20 June edition), officials here have stressed the country’s financial feasibility, even in a worst case scenario in which Greece leaves the single European currency.
“We are in a position to say that the Portuguese Treasury will be able to face any type of market volatility until the end of the year and we have good reason to believe that in the coming months, we will be in a good position to see through the first half of 2016”, Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho said last week.
He stressed that “should something serious happen to Greece, Portugal will not be the next to fall”, adding: “There is a country which is once again on the brink of bankruptcy and after almost four months of negotiations, there is no solution to the problem. I see this as being, in the very least, extremely disturbing.”
The Prime Minister also reiterated his call for a settlement.
“It is desirable for both Greece and the euro zone that any Greek default is averted and this means that Portugal will not place any obstacle in the way of an agreement being reached.”