Tsipras warns IMF and Germany over bailout talks
Greek prime minister says negotiators ‘playing with fire’ for domestic gain
Greece’s prime minister Alexis Tsipras has warned the IMF and Germany to “stop playing with fire” at the expense of the Greek people, saying he is confident a bailout deal is within reach.
Markets were hit this week by concerns that a deal might not be reached before July, when Greece is due to make a €7bn debt repayment. European negotiators are trying to seal a new agreement so Greece can release another tranche of funds from its most recent €86bn bailout to make the payment.
Representatives of Greece’s lenders are set to return to Athens this week to check whether Greece has complied with a second batch of reforms agreed under the current bailout.
“We will not allow our allies in Europe to play with fire on the cohesion and the future of Europe,” Mr Tsipras told a meeting of the leftwing Syriza party.
“The second review will conclude and it will conclude positively,” he added.
Mr Tsipras said it was unclear if the IMF, which he accused of “playing poker” with Greece, would have a central funding role.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Saturday said the bailout could yet fall apart as the IMF had not yet made up its mind whether to participate in providing more aid.
“Yes, it is on a shaky ground in the sense that we don’t see how the International Monetary Fund could manage this problem,” Juncker told German radio station Deutschlandfunk in an interview to be aired on Sunday.
Mr Tsipras said his country would not allow its European allies to use Greece’s plight for their own domestic agendas ahead of elections in France, Germany and the Netherlands this year. “Whoever is playing games for a two-speed eurozone, with splits and divisions, they are playing with fire.”
He said he was confident the German government “would not let an arsonist playing with the matches in the ammunition warehouse” and appealed to German chancellor Angela Merkel to stop “this constant aggression against Greece”.
Greece’s creditors tried to bridge differences over Athens’ bailout programme on Friday to keep it on track to make July’s debt payment. Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem said after Friday’s talks: “We made substantial progress today and are close to common ground for the mission to return to Athens in the coming week.”
Mr Tsipras accused the IMF of being cowardly and inventing new absurd demands for Greece. “The IMF does not seem to have the courage of its opinion, and some of its executives prefer to play personal games,” he said.
On Friday, yields on Greek two-year bonds fell back from an eight-month high, falling from close to 10 per cent on Thursday to 8.4 per cent on Friday, amid hopes of a breakthrough.