Government denies rumours of debt restructuring

“We have a plan that we are following and, of course, we completely deny all scenarios of restructuring Greece’s debt,” government spokesman George Petalotis stressed on Monday.

He stressed that talk about debt restructuring was simply talk and that no such decision had been taken.

“Our position and that of the European Union is specific,” he said and ruled out the possibility of a restructuring.

The spokesman emphasised that the only real scenario was that of sticking to the targets of the reform programme and that meeting the targets was helping the Greek economy do better.

He also emphasised that the only discussion entertained by the government at this time was that of extending repayment of the 110-euro loan from the EU and IMF.

Asked to comment on statements made by Health Minister Andreas Loverdos about the possibility of new horizontal measures, the spokesman repeated that “we have nothing to fear” if the targets of the government programme were met.

Petalotis noted that the government had set up a tax system that was as socially just as was possible and revealed that supplementary legislation was currently being prepared that would make amendments to tax inspection systems so that taxes were finally paid by the people that should pay them.

Tsipras critical of ‘irresponsible’ gov’t stance on restructuring debt

The government was handling the issue of restructuring Greece’s debt “irresponsibly,” Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) Parliamentary group leader Alexis Tsipras said on Monday during a meeting with staff unions at the Hellenic Vehicle Industry.

He urged prime minister George Papandreou “to stop hiding behind his finger and seek a renegotiation of the debt without painful terms, so that the Greek people have a chance to emerge from the crisis without everything being levelled”.

Tsipras pointed out that both in the case of borrowing directly from the European Central Bank and that of issuing a eurobond, the government had finally adopted policies first proposed by the Left that it had initially dismissed as unrealistic.

“As was the case with the Memorandum, so now the restructuring will come with terms that our creditors impose on us and they will simply bring them to the prime minister to once again sign them,” he added.