After six years of recession and sacrifice, the Greek Finance Ministry on Wednesday announced that Greece is entering 2015 with a 3.6-billion-euro gap in state funds. The December tax deficit was over 35%. Revenue worth 21.2 billion euros had been squeezed from taxpayers in the last five months, 5.2 billion euros lower than the 26.4 billion euros that had been expected.

The figures immediately released a barrage of political statements with the main opposition Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) party stating that it would not continue with the fifth review. “Why should we take 7.5 billion? Why take loans to pay off loans?” asked SYRIZA deputy Nadia Valavani.

“We won’t collect (single property tax) ENFIA in 2015,” said SYRIZA deputy Nikos Pappas, stating that a Large Property Tax will be instigated instead that would bring 2 billion euros. He also said, that revenue already gathered from ENFIA would not be returned, a statement that could cause Greeks to stop making ENFIA payments until the political uncertainty is lifted.

SYRIZA spokesman Panos Skourletis circulated a nonpaper that maintains that the government borrowed 120 billion euros from Treasury Bills, meaning that there is no problem if the 15-billion euro threshold is suprassed by issuing new ones to cover the country’s needs in March without a loan.

What European officials say

European officials ruled out a relaxation of austerity measures for cash-strapped Greece. Finnish Prime Minister Alex Stubb, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, European Stability Mechanism Managing Director Klaus Regling and European Central Bank Director Mario Draghi all released statements over the last 24 hours urging Greece to stay on the path of austerity.