Barrage of statements by foreign leaders vis-a-vis new SYRIZA gov’t

The heads of several governments and institutions were clear

“Greece must respect the Eurozone’s rules and cannot ask for special treatment after SYRIZA’s election, a party against austerity measures”, stated IMF head Christine Lagarde, according to Reuters.

 

“We cannot create special categories for each individual country”, she added during a “Le Monde” newspaper interview.

 

According to the same publication, Mrs. Lagarde also mentioned that Greece needs to implement important reforms like taxation and reforms in the Justice system.

 

“These are not austerity measures. These are reforms that must be done”, she said.

 

New warnings from Angela Merkel: Greece must follow its commitments

 

After the primary statements by German parties on Sunday night, a spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel stated that Germany expects the new Greek government to respect the country’s commitments to its partners.

 

Members of the SPD and CSU German parties warned SYRIZA to not break the agreed-upon commitments to lenders. The SPD Parliament president called for the new government to make new, revolutionary reforms.

 

Bavarian Finance Minister Markus Zeder also called for the new government to honor its commitments. The politician stated that -at this moment- there is no point talking about a Grexit, but stressed that a debt haircut makes no sense.

 

Jeroen Dijsselbloem stated that there is no support in the Eurogroup to erase the Greek debt. At the same time, he noted that it is way too early to speak anew on the Greek debt.

 

Martin Schultz, EP president stated that Alexis Tsipras will have to make concessions to his partners and he knows it. He also expressed his opinion that Mr. Tsipras is a pragmatist.