Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, speaking on the sidelines of an EU summit in Brussels on Friday, told Greek reporters he declined any prospect of a fourth bailout memorandum for the country, reportedly in answer to an offer by ECB President Mario Draghi for possible future assistance by the eurozone’s central bank.
In a statement mostly aimed at his constituency, and given that his ruling SYRIZA party significantly trails main opposition New Democracy in all mainstream opinion polls for the past several months, Tsipras also took the opportunity to highlight the fact that a “social dividend” was being doled out in Greece the same day.
“I believe this is a very symbolic development. I would like to thank the people at the finance ministry, the staff, who created the mechanism (for disbursing the one-off welfare benefit) for the fair distribution of the social dividend,” he said.
Tsipras also lauded the fact that Greek 10–year bonds were trading at levels not seen since December 2006, as he said.
