The Alternate Minister of International Economic Relations and negotiation coordinator Euclid Tsakalotos has warned that the Greek government will not sign any agreement for the sake of an agreement, in an interview he have to the Agora newspaper. He also stressed that the Greek people must rest assured that the government prioritizes the payment of wages and pensions over loan payments.
Mr. Tsakalotos commented that “we are not totally predictable to the creditors”, which he estimated is a significant difference from the previous, Antonis Samaras-led coalition government. He also stressed that while the Greek government is working towards a solution, “everybody knows that our limits are very specific” and added that a rupture with the creditors “is not a fetish”.
Ultimately though, he asserted, the agreement reached must break the vicious cycle of “extend and pretend”, namely extending the problems and pretending that they have been resolved. He explained that contrary to creditor claims, Greece never argued that it did not need help, but rather that there was no point in continuing down a path that has been proven to lead nowhere.
The agreement to be reached must also put an end to the talk of “Grexit”, which in turn will put an end to the uncertainty. It must also allow the implementation of a different policy, which will allow marginalized sections of society to return to the economic circuit as workers and, by extension, as consumers. As such, the primary surplus goals must be low, while an investment program is essential.
At a second phase, the agreement must encourage the implementation of plans for productive reconstruction and for the development of a radically different relationship with society and the economy, based on democracy and the people’s sense of belonging.
