Lafazanis calls on PM to go back on bailout plan
Energy Minister and outspoken leftist radical Panayiotis Lafazanis on Tuesday called on the SYRIZA-led government and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in particular to go back on a preliminary deal hammered out with international creditors on Monday that foresees more tough austerity measures and reforms in exchange for bailout funding.
In a statement posted on his ministry’s website on Tuesday, Lafazanis said that Monday’s deal is “unacceptable and unworthy of being credited to a radical party, like SYRIZA, and a fighting government, which pledged to abolish the memorandums and austerity.”
He goes on to accuse the country’s partners and the “German establishment” of treating Greece “as though it were their colony” and behaving like “callous extortionists.”
Lafazanis said the terms of the preliminary agreement may be voted through Parliament with the help of conservative New Democracy, centrist To Potami and socialist PASOK, “but it will not pass the people, who will effectively annul it.”
“The government and the prime minister himself, even in the final hour, have the right and the opportunity to reposition themselves, and take back the deal before any final and conclusive decisions are taken by Parliament,” Lafazanis said in the statement.
