Greece under Left Rule, may Desert Euro Zone or Seek Debt Write Down
European finance ministers started work on reviving
Greece’s troubled rescue program after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras took office promising to end Germany inspired.
Finance chiefs from the 19-nation euro area signaled their willingness to do a deal with Tsipras- so long as the new Greek
prime minister drops his demand for a debt writedown.
Creditors’ demands for more reform must balance against
voters’ exhaustion so Greece won’t run out of money by mid-year.
“The financial situation is not such that they could manage
without further programs, as finance ministers gathered from all 28 European
Union nations.
Varoufakis the next Finance Minister has decried Greece’s austerity
program set as a condition for pledges of 240 billion euros ($270 billion) in
aid since May 2010. Varoufakis said the bailout
wasn’t a rescue but “a vicious cycle,” that patently hasn’t worked.
Tsipras, 40, drew congratulations and an invitation to Brussels from
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in
a telephone call Monday, an EU official said, and IMF Managing Director
Christine Lagarde also lent her support to the new
government. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country is the biggest contributor
to Greece’s bailouts, congratulated Tsipras in a
statement Tuesday, a day later than some other European leaders.
Thomas
Wieser, the European Union official in charge of
preparing meetings of euro-area finance ministers, told Austrian radio ORF that
Greece’s official creditors will probably extend the deadline for the country
to qualify for its next aid disbursement and Malta’s finance minister, Edward Scicluna, said the troika is also likely to ease its
demands for further economic overhauls in Greece.