The international press appears skeptical about the Greek government’s resolve and does not believe that the recent list of reforms proposed by the Minister of Finances Yanis Varoufakis will be enough to placate creditor demands.
An article in Bloomberg stresses that Greece’s creditors will reject the list of reforms, as they seem to be far away from had been discussed about two weeks ago. Bloomberg also reported on the possibility of a referendum that was mentioned in a recent interview with Mr. Varoufakis, but pointed out that the last time such an idea as mooted it “didn’t go down very well in the euro region”.
Similarly, the Guardian argues that Greece does not have the time to carry out a referendum and cites Germany’s Depyty Finance Minister Steffen Kampeter, who argued that early elections or a referendum would merely delay any reforms.
The New York Times points out that Greece “has no good Plan B’s” and that the government’s “only rational course of action” is to focus on implementing reforms, in cooperation with its creditors. The NYT examine various scenarios and concludes that Greece’s “best bet” is to convince its creditors of “good faith and push ahead vigorous reforms”.
German media appears more critical of the Greek reforms, with Deutsche Welle claiming that the reform ideas are insufficient and warning that money will only be paid out after reforms have been implemented. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung goes one step further and predicts that Mr. Varoufakis will experience another “disappointment” in Brussels today.
The head of the German Social Democrats was interviewed by the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung and stressed that the Eurogroup must not give in to Greek demands and that the Greek proposals must be scrutinized.
The Süddeutsche Zeitung cites sources in Brussels, which reveal that efforts are being made so that Greece will receive the final tranche it is owed and that the Greek Finance Minister will be offered a conditional compromise to that end. First that Greece will submit a detailed and costed reform program that it will commit to implementing and that the EU, ECB and IMF must examine and approve such a program, in order to ensure it will modernize the economy.
