A day before a critical Eurogroup meeting, Greek Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis said the new radical leftist government is not seeking a rupture between Greece and its European partners, but will not extend the current bailout agreement.

“On the contrary, we want our country to stand up on its own two feet again,” Lafazanis said in an interview with the state-run Athens News Agency.

Lafazanis, who began his political career in the hardline marxist Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and serves as the unofficial head of the extreme-left grouping (Left Platform) within ruling SYRIZA party itself, said the government’s goal is to “safeguard the country’s national independence.”

The staunchly anti-capitalist and anti-free market minister ticked off a “laundry list” of goals he said the new Greek government wants to promote: “… popular rule, the survival and future of the people, and along with all these, the rights of all working people and the peoples of Europe. These goals constitute our plan, from beginning to end.”

With regard to reaching an agreement with the country’s eurozone creditors, Lafazanis said that “if our so-called partners insist on extending the existing bailout program – as they call the shameful memorandum – in any form, there will be no agreement.”

The bailout agreement runs out on Feb. 28.

Lafazanis, whose wordy and slightly Warsaw Pact-sounding portfolio is called “ministry of production reconstruction, environment and energy”, estimated that it would be difficult for Germany to assume the responsibility of making a conscious choice for a full break with Greece, because there will be direct repercussions.