No watered down agenda for Greece

New Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has said Greece will not default on its bailout debts but is this really realistic?

January 28, 2015
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Transcript

World Finance speaks to Dr Roman Gerodimos, Founder of the Greek Politics Specialist Group to find out what new ruling party Syriza has planned for the country’s debt ridden economy.

World Finance: The new Greek PM, Alexis Tsipras has said in his first cabinet meeting that the country will not default on its bailout debts. Is this really realistic? What’s his plan?
Dr Roman Gerodimos: I think his plan is to go in for a tough negotiation with the troika of lenders and to seek a radically different package of measures, and maybe a renegotiation of the debt.

At the same time what we’re seeing is top ministers in the government, today, yesterday, as soon as they’re sworn in, they actually repeat and confirm the pledges that they made before the election about certain radical changes – the raising of the minimum wage, renationalisation of public operations, and so on.

So it doesn’t look like Mr. Tsipras is watering down his agenda, it’s just that he’s trying to reassure both domestic and international audiences that he’s not planning to take Greece out of the euro.

World Finance: But Roman, is it realistic? How can Greece not default?
Dr Roman Gerodimos: Greece is very likely to stay in the eurozone, but that will depend on Mr. Tsipras’ decisions and whether he chooses to walk out of the negotiations or to make some concessions or to seek a middle way. That will probably have to be settled within the next few weeks.

The finance minister thins morning said it will all be over in 15 days time, so for a lot of people that is quite scary in Greece, but Mr. Tsipras looks very confident that he knows what he’s doing.