Main opposition SYRIZA spokesman Panos Skourletis on Monday reacted on German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble’s statement that Greece may need additional help.

“I think that both the IMF report and the statements of Mr Schaeuble are in the same direction. They aim to dispel any optimism created around the course of the country and prove the government’s rhetoric wrong,” Skourletis told private radio station Real FM.

Skourletis argued that this whole project does not aim to help the country stand on its feet and make the debt sustainable, but above all, to bring on major changes at the expense of the labour market.”This is the real nature of this programme. When we realize this, we will have taken the most decisive and crucial step to negotiate. At least SYRIZA has realized this. And this is the mandate, the encouragement we got from the elections, to move in this direction,” Skourletis noted.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble was reported as saying in an interview for Focus weekly magazine that Greece may need additional help, probably under 10 billion euros. In the same interview, Schaeuble said that the second fiscal adjustment programme for Greece, approved in 2012, would last for two years and at its end Greece would not be able to cover its needs fully through the markets.
According to assessments by Greece’s troika of creditors, the country’s debt will reach a viable level by 2022. For this reason, he said, Greece was likely to need limited help once more, provided it continued to fulfill the troika terms. The amount was likely to be a single-digit one, he said.