Syriza in danger of breaking key election pledges
GREECE’S anti-austerity Syriza government could be set to break some of its main election promises.
One Spanish official has said Greece could be in for a third bailout programme, while Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis is struggling to rehire his ministry’s former cleaners.
“If Greece cannot gain access to the markets between now and June… we must establish a new agreement with Greece,” Spanish economy minister Luis de Guindos said yesterday.
“We can call it an agreement, accord, pact, programme, but it is that.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel later downplayed talk of another bailout for Greece. “I think we now have all our hands full to make this [second bailout] succeed,” Merkel said yesterday during a press conference.
Syriza campaigned on the promise to end Greece’s bailout, which was a cheap loan Athens was granted on the condition that it undertook reforms and cut its government’s debt.
Meanwhile, Varoufakis yesterday met representatives of the finance ministry’s fired cleaners to brief them on efforts to restore their jobs.
Rehiring the staff requires a legal appeal, which has been postponed until October.
Varoufakis said rehiring them was “a matter of ethical and symbolic importance”.