Saturday, February 21, 2015

Mehreen Khan and Ambrose Evans-Pritchard— Alexis Tsipras: 'We have won the battle, not the war'

The Greek government has won a battle against its austerity programme and the Troika after reaching a deadline-day extension to avert bankruptcy, according to the country's prime minister. 
Speaking in a televised address, a defiant Alexis Tsipras said: "Yesterday we took a decisive step, leaving austerity, the bailouts and the troika." 
"We won a battle, not the war. The difficulties, the real difficulties ...are ahead of us."
Greece secured a temporary four-month extension of its bail-out with eurozone finance ministers on Friday evening.
 
Yanis Varoufakis, Greece's finance minister said the agreement had "averted a sickness" in the Greek economy, by allowing a relaxation of tough fiscal targets that had previously been imposed on the economy. 
"We are no longer following a script given to us by external agencies. Once you have a relationship of equals, the co-operation can be a lot more fruitful," said Mr Varoufakis.
Greece now faces a new race to come up with the list of reforms it will carry out in return for money from the "institutions" of the European Commission, European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
The Telegraph
Alexis Tsipras: 'We have won the battle, not the war'
Mehreen Khan & Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

3 comments:

Peter Pan said...

Here's another perspective:
The abject capitulation of the Syriza government exposes the utter political bankruptcy of the myriad petty-bourgeois pseudo-left organizations throughout the world that just a few weeks ago hailed the electoral victory of Tsipras as an earth-shaking event. Far from denouncing Syriza’s betrayal, these groups will work overtime conjuring up excuses and justifications. But broad sections of the Greek working class will see the agreement for what it is: a cynical and cowardly act of political treachery.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/02/21/gree-f21.html

Tom Hickey said...

Thanks. I had already but up a post with some WSWS links and added this link to it.

Roger Erickson said...

'Greece now faces a new race to come up with the list of reforms it will carry out in return for money from the "institutions"'

?? Why should Greece stoop to performing tricks for foreigners, just for the right to denominate it's own internal & external transactions?

This fails logic-101
http://mikenormaneconomics.blogspot.com/2013/09/a-currency-denominated-economy-cannot.html