THE Greek government’s spokesperson Gavriil Sakelarides stated yesterday morning that ‘he was optimistic of a deal’ with the European Commission by this Sunday.
He said that the Greek government’s proposals to the EC were to be tabled later on the day. But Sakelarides did not claim any hope for a ‘honourable compromise’, the constant past week rhetoric of the Greek government.
Sakelarides said that he was ‘confident’ the SYRIZA parliamentary deputies would vote for the agreement in the Vouli (Greek parliament). These proposals have not made public nor discussed within the ruling SYRIZA party’s committees. But Greek Prime Minister and SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras has been discussing these proposals with the right-wing political party leaders.
Greek media say that the Greek government proposals have been drafted with the aid of French specialists and emphasise the French Prime Minister Valls’ opposition to a Grexit. On Thursday, the Energy and Industry Minister Panayiotis Lafazanis, speaking at an energy conference, said that ‘Greece seeks an immediate agreement with the institutions, but we do not want to add to the previous two failed bail-outs a third savage austerity accord without any prospects’.
Lafazanis, the leader of SYRIZA’s Left Platform, stressed that ‘the “NO” of the Greek people would not be turned into a humiliating “YES” to new austerity crematoriums’. Other Left Platform leaders have written that ‘it is tragic that the Greek government does not take measures against the media and for the public control of the banks’.
SYRIZA supporters have called mass rallies for this Friday and Sunday in Athens and Thessaloniki to ‘celebrate the “NO” victory’. The reactionary ‘We stay in Europe’ movement had organised a rally in Athens for Thursday evening.
The Greek Statistics Authority ELSTAT revealed that unemployment last April stood at 25.6 per cent down from March’s 25.8 per cent. ELSTAT said that now some 900,000 households, representing 36 per cent of the population in Greece, lives ‘at poverty line’.