New Deputy Prime Minister Yiannis Dragasakis on Wednesday attempted to extinguish a firestorm of negative market reactions to same-day announcements by other ministers, who more-or-less confirmed SYRIZA’s pre-election promise that most privatizations in Greece will be suspended or overturned.
Following a meeting chaired by PM Alexis Tsipras, Dragasakis, a highly regarded LSE-trained economist who is viewed as amongst the “moderates” in the current radical left government, attempted to “sooth” investors’ nerves.
Dragasakis said his government, in fact, wants private investments and will soon release a list on available possibilities, “investments in a Greece of opportunity, not a Greece of poverty,” as he characteristically said.
Moreover, he said the new government will continue to oppose destructive policies, but will convey this opposition in a calmer manner.
Fresh from the new government’s fiery first brush with markets’ “real-politik”, Dragasakis justified the statements made by certain of his Cabinet colleagues by saying that “we have ministers that have undertaken such duties for the first time”.
