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As representatives of Greece's international creditors started arriving on Wednesday in the Greek capital for a new round of tough negotiations, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said the country would get relief from its huge debt burden as early as November. He also hit out at dissenters within his party, saying that securing a new bailout deal was a priority.
Amid growing opposition within his leftist Syriza party over the prospect of fresh austerity required under Greece's third financial rescue in five years, Tsipras accused dissenters of seeking to manipulate the result of this month's referendum on bailout terms by claiming it was tantamount to a mandate for a Greek exit from the eurozone. "The Greek people voted no to a bad deal, they did not vote for an exit from the euro," he said.
"Grexit will be on the table until debt relief comes," Tsipras told a Greek radio station. However, he said, Athens had secured a commitment to debt relief from creditors as part of the latest bailout package, worth as much as 86 billion euros, or about $95 billion. "Debt relief will come after the first review of the programme in November," he said.
Mina Andreeva, a spokeswoman for the European Commission, which, along with the International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank, is keeping track of Greece's bailout conditions, declined to comment on Tsipras's expectations for debt relief by November.
This week, she said that, in order to be eligible for debt relief, Greece would need to reach an agreement on the third bailout and then successfully complete the first review by representatives of the country's creditors - the fund, the central bank and the other eurozone countries.
She said there was "constructive cooperation with the Greek authorities" in Athens this week and that negotiations would "progress as swiftly as possible."
As dissenters pushed for a Syriza party congress to discuss its direction and the bailout, Tsipras said that sealing an agreement with creditors in August was the current priority and that a congress could be held in September. "We're carrying a bomb now. Let's defuse it first."
Opposition parties have also sharply criticised the latest deal with the creditors, saying the government caved in the talks and that the terms were even worse than those previously on offer, which Greeks rejected in the referendum.
Tsipras said he had no regrets about the government's handling of negotiations. He said that the economic damage wreaked by the temporary shutdown of Greek banks and the continuing limits on money withdrawals and transfers was "reversible."
The European Central Bank on Wednesday kept its emergency lending to banks at €90.4 billion, the same level as last week, a person with knowledge of the decision said. The Greek central bank, which is responsible for monitoring the cash needs of Greek commercial banks, did not request more emergency funds, the person said.
Greek banks have been dependent on the European Central Bank for money they need to operate, because they are not able to borrow at reasonable rates on international markets.
Under pressure from radicals in Syriza who object to a new bailout deal and have started lobbying openly for a return to the drachma, Tsipras underlined the paradox of coalition legislators opposing the government. "You can't say you disagree with government decisions but that you back the government. That's taking surrealism to a new level," Tsipras said, adding that lawmakers breaking from the central government line should give up their seats.
The prime minister said he did not want early elections but could not rule them out, because of the strife in his party. "I would be the last person who would want elections if we had a guaranteed majority in Parliament," he said. "If I don't have it, though, I will be forced to go to elections."
As for claims by Yanis Varoufakis, the former finance minister, regarding plans for a parallel banking system that could be switched to a new currency, Tsipras made only a fleeting comment, accusing the news media and political opposition of "creating an unbelievable storm over whether Varoufakis had a Plan B."
"Imagine what would happen if there was economic disaster," he said.
