PM Tsipras: We won’t back down from what we’ve announced

The Greek PM addressed concerns about ‘unilateral actions’ and capital controls and gave a sample of what is to come at the EU summit

Speaking in Parliament during debate on the humanitarian crisis draft bill tabled by his government, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said it was the first time in four years that a bill was being debated in the legislature that is not a mere “translation” of recommendations made to Greece by its European creditors.

In the second day of the debate, the Greek PM predicted that the bill will be passed with a huge majority, as it addresses the needs of the largest part of the Greek population, as he said, not only the needs of “an elite”.

Commenting on the strict stance of Greece’s European creditors in the negotiations regarding the Greek problem, Tsipras said the road ahead is difficult and full of traps, which was largely expected.

“Our partners, who thought of us as a continuation of the previous government, are just starting to get to know us,” Tsipras noted, underlying that the Greek governmentis not asking for special treatment, just equal treatment.

“We have laid the foundations for a solution of the Greek problem,” the PM said, noting that Europe has just started to acknowledge that the humanitarian crisis in Greece is the result of a program that failed miserably.

“We have canceled the evaluation of the previous program and put an end to the Troika, the representatives of which had grown accustomed to interrogating and humiliating ministers,” Tsipras said, underlying, however, that there are some people in Greece that are even worse than the Troika in some respects.

The Greek PM personally answered claims that Greece is taking ‘unilateral action’ by addressing the humanitarian crisis in a letter by Declan Costello, the European Commission’s chief representative of the technical team monitoring Greece.

The speech in Parliament was a sample as to what is expected from Tsipras at the EU summit on Thursday and his meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday.