The Greek Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) government wants a speedy agreement with its international creditors from the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund even if it is somewhat unbalanced as long as there are elements of “mutual benefit”. All that SYRIZA seeks is a little give-and-take from Greece’s creditors so that the economy can stabilize. Developments show that SYRIZA’s leadership is willing to proceed towards a compromise even though the final deal will be nowhere near the party’s goals when it first entered the negotiations.

An agreement comes attached with political risks for Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras as it is likely to include VAT increases and the transfer of pre-election promises to some future date. Tsipras now has the full control of the course of negotiation, accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Giannis Dragasakis and State Minister Nikos Pappas.

Dragasakis briefed the party on Thursday afternoon and met with criticism of the party’s handling of negotiation. The greatest dissent came from Speaker of the House Zoe Konstantopoulou and deputy Alexis Mitropoulos. On his part, Pappas was particularly agressive with those who found fault in an agreement. “Extreme voices that don’t want a solution will inevitably be faced with political consequences,” he characteristically said from the podium of the Economist conference.

Indicative of the fact that negotiations are now being handled by the party’s leadership could be seen at the Brussels Group teleconference on Thursday that was attended by George Chouliarakis, head of the Greek economic delegation. Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis did not attend the meeting. Tsipras, on the other hand, was close by watching the proceedings. Tsipras’ goal is to exhaust all avenues on a technical level so that there is convergence by May 19.

The party’s leadership hopes to clinch a deal by the European Council attended by EU leaders in Riga, Latvia, from May 20-21.