Greece Mulls Referendum as No Deal With Lenders in Sight
Geez. hey cause more problems han anything else at this point.
Geez. hey cause more problems han anything else at this point.
Check the Austrian banks problems (first the Erste - which was the largest Austrian banks at that time - and now the Hypo Alpe Adria :
UPDATE 1-Austrian prosecutors investigate Hypo Alpe Adria's 2009 books | Reuters
If we stretch it a bit more, then other countries banks (like the Deutche bank) could fall in a second in some cases due to their exposure to what can turn a disastrous "investement". Greeks are just a little pebble in the whole mess (Juncker should know that - after all he was an organizer of largest money laundering scheme in Europe while he was Luxembourg PM - and he was awarded an President of the European Commission position for the job well done)
An Exasperated Tsipras Calls For Syriza Referendum On Bailout Cancellation
Anyone who thought Greece’s third bailout program was a done deal or that, at the very least, the market would get a few months of respite before having to grapple with daily Grexit headlines again, got a rude awakening late last week when reports of a secret plot (hatched by ex-Energy Minister Panayiotis Lafazanis along with several Left Platform co-conspirators) to storm the Greek mint and seize the country’s currency reserves underscored the deep divisions within Syriza and betrayed the extent to which passing a third set of prior actions and sealing the deal on an ESM program would prove to be anything but simple.
Just days after Lafazanis’ plan leaked last week, Kathimerini claimed it had transcripts from a conference call between former Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis and international hedge fund managers during which Varoufakis described yet another secret ploy to return the country to the drachma by way of establishing a parallel payments system set up using surreptitiously obtained tax filer ID numbers. Later, the full audio recording was released.
At that juncture, the opposition parties which helped PM Alexis Tsipras beat back a Syriza rebellion and pass the first two sets of bailout prior actions through parliament began to ask questions.
Essentially, opposition lawmakers wanted to know whether Tsipras was allowing his party to undermine progress on the bailout just as he was desperately courting MPs from across the aisle in order to win parliamentary approval for the deal’s conditions.
On Wednesday, in an interview with Sto Kokkino radio, Tsipras addressed friction within the party and suggested that if he lost his majority in parliament he would call for snap elections.
Today, some 200 Syriza members met at an Athens movie theatre in an effort to figure out next steps for the divided party. Essentially, the Left Platform still wants to resist the third bailout while Tsipras simply wants to avoid party politics altogether until the new program is in place at which point he’ll 'deal' with Syriza’s far-left rabble-rousers.
Getting sick of the whole Greece story - it is used to divert the attention from highest unemployment ever in the EU zone. All the usual BS at the expense of the poorest
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Greece’s anti-austerity coalition is considering calling a referendum on government policy as euro-area finance ministers are set to withhold further aid payments at a meeting in Brussels tomorrow.
In separate interviews this weekend, Greece’s finance and defense ministers said that if the country’s creditors raise requests which aren’t acceptable to the government, then the people of Greece may have to decide on how to break the deadlock.
Greece may call new elections or hold a referendum if European finance ministers reject the government’s reform proposals, Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis told Italy’s Il Corriere della Sera in an interview today. A referendum would only be held if negotiations with creditors fail, spokesman Gabriel Sakellaridis said by telephone.
Greece’s anti-austerity coalition has so far been unable to agree with its creditors on the terms for the disbursement of an outstanding aid tranche totaling about 7 billion euros ($7.6 billion). The deadlock threatens to lead the country into defaulting on its payments, since Greece has lost market access and its only sources of financing are emergency loans from the euro area’s crisis fund and the International Monetary Fund. Its banks are being kept afloat thanks to an Emergency Liquidity Assistance lifeline, subject to approval by the European Central Bank.
“I can only say that we have money to pay salaries and pensions of public employees,” Varoufakis told Corriere. “For the rest we will see.”
Aid Disbursement
The government believes a solution will be found in negotiations with creditors, though it doesn’t expect an aid tranche disbursement decision from tomorrow’s meeting, Sakellaridis said. Any referendum is unlikely, and if held, it would approve or reject government policy, not consider Greece’s euro membership, he added.
Varoufakis never said or meant that the country’s membership in the euro area would be the subject of a hypothetical referendum in his interview with Corriere, the country’s finance ministry said in an e-mailed statement. Implementation an agreement extending the country’s bailout loans proceeds normally, and Greece will repay all financial obligations on time and in full, the ministry said.
Greek Commitments
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s administration sent a set of commitments Friday to Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who leads meetings of his euro-area counterparts, in the hope that the policy proposals will pave the way for the disbursement of aid.
Two officials representing creditor institutions said the proposals, which include tackling tax avoidance through non-professional inspectors and equipping citizens with chipped smart cards, aren’t enough to unlock bailout funds. Both said the proposals are amateurish and don’t signal substantial progress for Greece meeting the commitments it made on Feb. 20, in exchange for an extension to its emergency support loans. The officials asked not to be identified as negotiations are private.
In his response to Greek proposals, Dijsselbloem pointed out need for the country to continue discussions with the institutions, the chairman’s spokeswoman Simone Boitelle said in a text message on March 7. The aim of the talks between the government and the auditors from creditor institutions will be the implementation of the February euro finance ministers’ decision, Dijsselbloem told Varoufakis in a letter sent on Friday, according to Boitelle.
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