PM Tsipras: Third memorandum out of the question

He promised “hard negotiations” with creditors and said the latest four-month loan extension was not an extension of the previous memorandums

In order to calm budding criticism that SYRIZA’s pre-election promises may not be met, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Friday unveiled the first four draft bills by his government as well as the establishment of parliamentary commission of inquiry to probe how Greece needed the initial bailout in the first place.

The bills concern measures to alleviate the so-called “humanitarian crisis” that SYRIZA first coined over the past two years, to restructure taxpayers’ debts to the state and pension funds, tackling the decades-old plague of tax evasion in the country, a law shielding first residences from foreclosure and the reopening of the state broadcaster in the previous form.

He also promised “hard negotiations” with creditors and also said the latest four-month loan extension that his government officially requested from eurozone partners-cum-creditors was not an extension of the previous memorandums or a continuation of austerity. The Eurogroup OK’d the SYRIZA government request last week in an 11th-hour agreement, with national parliaments in euro area countries approving the deal in the days after.

“Our partners agreed to withdraw their insistence over unrealistic and unprecedented austerity, primary surplus (goals) and also confirmed talks as part of the new agreement on the Greek debt and the terms of repayment.”

Speaking from a Cabinet meeting setting and with live TV cameras rolling, he finally launched criticised the opposition by promising that “Memorandums are over for good, no matter how much that upsets them, and no matter how much they are trying to convince otherwise”.