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Two
high-ranking Greek officials made some statements that can be
considered an indication that SYRIZA may have been already prepared
for the possibility of Greece leaving the eurozone, a case well-known
now with the term Grexit.
Speaking on
BBC Radio 4 Today, Euclid Tsakalotos, implied that the Greek
government may be forced to go to elections if Greece's creditors
insist on the catastrophic policies, bringing the Grexit possibility
on the table.
From
enikos.gr:
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“Our
position is that if we have an economically feasible plan that
doesn’t create recession and continue the debt trap we will
sign. If we don’t, we have to go to the Greek people because we
have no mandate to leave the euro, and that would be a very bad
eventuality. But we will consult the Greek people. Because our
mandate was the best possible deal within the euro, as we are
pro-European. If that is not on the cards, and if Europe says you
can do whatever you want, you can vote what you want but in the
end you always have to do the same policies, then we’ll have to
reconsider with the Greek people what to do about that,”
Tsakalotos said.
He
argued that Grexit would radically change the nature of the single
currency.
“Once
one country has left, you change a monetary union into a fixed
exchange rate system, where it’s a cost-benefit analysis whether
another country leaves. My greatest fear is that the break-up of
the euro will return (us) to the competitive devaluations, and the
nationalisms, and the kind of politics we had in the 1930s,” he
added.
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Let us
remind that the "West-nurtured"
Tsakalotos has been included in the Greek negotiating team as being
member of the moderate section of SYRIZA, to boost the progress of
negotiations.
Another one
Greek official, the Deputy Minister for Social Security, Dimitris
Stratoulis, went further by saying that the "creditors would
suffer much more than Greece in the event of Grexit. People should
not worry. We would have difficulties for several months but then
everything would be fine."
(http://www.grreporter.info/en/syriza_not_afraid_grexit/12859)
Stratoulis
is considered to belong in the most radical part of SYRIZA and this
recent statement is remarkably close to Lapavitsas' position, as expressed recently, who steadily supports that Grexit
and the return to national currency could be proved beneficial,
saving the Greek economy.
Prior to the
Greek elections of 25th January, mainstream media journalists tried
to force SYRIZA MPs to reveal possible "forbidden" options
in case they would take power. Most common questions were "if
the creditors say no, where will you find the money?" and "will
you stay in eurozone at any cost?". In several cases, Alexis
Tsipras answered that euro is not a "fetish", implying that
there is a limit in people's sacrifices, thus not "at any cost".
Everything
shows that SYRIZA had probably studied certain possible actions
towards the direction of a smooth - as much as possible - Grexit,
long before taking power. It is also possible that Tsipras
administration used the four-month truce period to prepare better for Grexit, because the two
sides in the negotiation table have huge ideological differences and
they know it. Which brings us closer to the ultimate battle in the European field.
Anyone who knows Greeks well also knows they are the obvious people to smash the golden calf.
ReplyDeleteThey can hold anything together, from a shipping line to a room air conditioner, with chewing gum and a couple of drachma. Their religion is in their bones...not intellectual or preachy. They always have a cousin that can fix anything. They need that cousin...they deserve to keep their country.
I have several Greek friends and they are very hard working people.The problem is the banks and the governments.Think Cyprus.The banks make stupid mistakes and they want the people to pay.We in the US have a machine called a printing press that allows us time but our day will come and like Greece it won't be fun.
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