Greece’s Conservative New Democracy (ND) Prime Minister Antonis Samaras appeared on a morning talk show program on private ANT1. He stated his belief that Greece was excluded from the European Central Bank’s (ECB) quantitative easing program as a result of the outflow from Greek banks that resulted in Greek banks seeking emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) from the ECB.
“We are in danger of holding an umbrella at a time when it’s raining Growth in Europe,” he said, referring to Greece’s ineligibility to take part in the ECB’s 1.1 trillion-euro QE program until July. “It may be raining money for a year without us not getting even a drop!”
He criticized the main opposition Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) at celebrating at SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras’ main pre-election gathering at Omonia Square on Thursday at a time when ECB President Mario Draghi had said that Greece would only get money once the evaluation had ended.
“Development doesn’t come with bullheadedness. We need gravity. There should be no bubbles,” he underlined.
“Deposits have been withdrawn. Greek banks have ended up seeking ELA and taking 10 bln euros that would last for just two weeks. We are entering a period of dependence,” he said. “When somebody says, ‘I’m not paying my debt or interest rates’, ‘I’ll print money’, ‘Take money from small depositors’, ‘Better death than a bad deal’ or ‘let the Cosco deal jump in the lake’. When somebody says ‘I’ll tax property for times’, ‘The police and coast guard will be unarmed’, ‘I’ll abolish Frontex and offer mass citizenship,’ it becomes my duty to warn people.”
He stated optimism that SYRIZA’s lead would be overturned as he believed that the majority of undecided voters belong to the conservative faction.