The President of main opposition New Democracy (ND) on Saturday attacked Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras for trying to present the return to the memorandum signed on Friday at the Eurogroup as a success. In a press release issued by the party, Antonis Samaras said the government essentially returned to the same place it was before, but under mush worse conditions. “Although they said they are abolishing the memorandum, now they signed its extension for four more months; only now it’s named differently!” Samaras noted the government said they would abolish the troika, but now they are negotiating with the very same troika and they will continue to negotiate for the new memorandum, “because that’s where the country is heading. This is another thing they signed for yesterday,” he said. He noted that the coalition government led by ND was exiting the memoranda at the end of February and by the end of the year “there really wouldn’t be a troika.” The Greek government, he continues, speaks of empty state coffers when it’s basing its existence on the surpluses left by the precious government and despite the fact that before the elections they were urging people not to pay their taxes. “Now they signed for surpluses for years to come. They only received a vague promise to cut the target for 2015. Why? Not to distribute money, but because the economy is heading towards a new recession and will not be able to produce real surpluses. But you need the surpluses so that you don’t have to borrow and to exit the memoranda.” Samaras also mentioned the Greek debt, saying SYRIZA had promised to write it down, but now it’s struggling to secure the measure ND had secured since November 2012. He also wondered where the government would find the money to fulfill its obligations in the coming months. “Never before have so many lies been told and negated in such a short time! And not just pre-election lies. Their plans will now have to be approved by the troika. They’ll submit them on Monday and we’ll see which will be accepted and which will be rejected. The president of ND reiterated his statement that though the worse scenario has been averted for the time being, the biggest danger is still looming. “They just put their signature on things the previous government was trying – and was close – to abolishing,” Samaras said. He also criticized the government’s claim that this is the first real negotiation that has ever taken place. “With bank deposits fleeing, with the country’s creditworthiness being constantly downgraded, with recovery at risk of turning into recession and surpluses into deficits. If this is called ‘successful negotiation’ then what would we call a fiasco?” (source: ana-mpa)
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