Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Monday used language reminiscent of his more radical posturing as main opposition leader prior to assuming power in January 2015, attacking proponents of a precautionary credit line for the country after the third bailout ends in August 2018.
Addressing MPs of his ruling SYRIZA party in Parliament, Tsipras said arguments in favor of such a credit line are a “modern version” subjugation, using a term taken directly from the Ottoman-era occupation of Greece.
Tsipras, speaking on the same day as the statistics authority announced a massive, by EZ standards, primary budget surplus for 2017, said a “clean exit” from the memorandum is on the horizon.
“This time they (proponents) aren’t referring to a fourth memorandum but to a similar mechanism under a different wrapping, the so-called precautionary credit line … there is no continuation on the horizon, nor an extension of the memorandum, nor a ‘dirty exit’,” he said.
The poll-trailing Tsipras coalition government has for months pointed to the end of the third memorandum, linked with a guaranteed credit line of low interest loans extended by European partners and institutions, as a “landmark” for the country’s economic recovery.
