Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras focused for the first time on former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis’ creation of Plan B. Opposition socialist PASOK leader Fofi Gennimata asked the prime minister to give details on the secret plan for a parallel currency that included hacking into people’s tax codes which has incited law suits.
Five days after the controversial plans were exposed, Tsipras – during the PM’s hour at Greek Parliament – said that he had personally asked for Varoufakis to come up with an contingency plan in case of a Grexit. He stressed that the government never wanted to lead the country out of the eurozone but still felt the need to have a back-up plan to be implemented in the worst-case scenario.
“Instead of seeking responsibilities for the Grexit plan from the Greek side you should address the other side. Have you asked the European Commission? Have you not heard of the 1,000-page plan from the Commission that Spiegel and Times had refered to?” he asked.
He said that the focus on the plan would have been “entertaining” were it not driven by “insidious motives” that are dangerous for the country as it wants to “penalize the government’s obvious efforts to protect citizens in the case of collapsing talks” so that the country wouldn’t go like “sheep to the slaughter of negotiations.”
Tsipras saw that Greece’s socialist identify more with Greece’s creditors than the social parties of Europe. “On whose side are you on Ms. Gennimata?” he asked.
Once again, he said that he had to negotiate on uneven terms with Greece’s opposition parties sitting on the side of the creditors while the Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) and Independent Greeks (ANEL) were trying to create better terms for Greece.
On her part, Gennimata said that she feels no need to search on which side she is on and she sat with EU socialists to ensure Greece remained at the negotiating table as the government was not able to achieve this alone.