Ministry of Finance

TRANSCRIPT

Bloomberg News

02 July 2015

“What we are saying to the Greek people is: No more extended time. Please back us. To say no – not to any deal but to this deal which has absolutely no specific funding proposal coming with it. And no debt sustainability analysis which is worth the paper that it is written on.”

“This kind of mentality just sign up – take a small tranch of money just to tide you over for a few months. And then we will come back to the same crisis.”

“It’s time to end this.”

“Why is Greece  constantly on the brink of collapse and with Grexit in the air?”

“It is not the election of the Radical Left government.”

“We are products of the failures of these problems.”

“So what we are saying is this: We really desperately want to stay in the euro. Even if we are critical of the institutional framework of the euro. Once you are inside a monetary union like that you do not want to get out. So we want to be in it.”

“The question for the Greek people is: How do you want to stay in the euro monetary union? Do you stay by further Extending and Pretending debt relief?

“I believe not.”

“If we sign that agreement which is offered to us by the Institutions then in six months we’ll be even closer to insolvency. Even closer to Grexit.”

“So, I’m not going to put this question to the Greek people.”

“Because if you ask me: Do I want the Greeks in the euro? Absolutely, yes. It’s a temptuous question.”

“”The paradigm is how to achieve that.”

“Do I achieve it by another Extending and Pretending?“

“I don’t think so”.

“Or by rejecting it? I do think so.”

“The Election Campaign. In Europe the Conservative Parties and the Centralist Parties have campaigned against us across Europe. The Spanish prime minister came here and campaigned in favor of the sitting government at the time.”

“Look at what the German press the French press were writing at the time. They just didn’t like the idea of our government.”

“Not so much because we are left wing government. Not so much because we are left wing government because left-right means nothing these days.” 

“This is a question of: Do we challenge the established logic which in our view is irrational? That you need to impose the greatest austerity on the most recessionary economy.”

“And they don’t like the idea that we are going to challenge that supposed logic.”

“I think that they trust us to do what we say they will do.  And they can see that through the Referendum.” 

“They don’t like what we are dong. Which is to challenge the logic of the state.”

“Look, nobody likes to be told that they were wrong.  They have the three largest institutions behind them in the world: The IMF. The European Commission. The European Central Bank. They’ve been imposing on this country a certain program of reform and fiscal policy which is the greatest failure in the history of economics in the world.”

“Right?”

“They don’t like to hear that. They want to pretend that the reason why we are in trouble is because we were elected and to look at the problem – and it wasn’t working. That’s why we were elected. And it’s all the fault of the Greek government.” 

“And it’s about time they come clean on their failures.”

“Well, we’ve been in Chapter 11 since 2010. Why are we in this mess? Because we were insolvent then.”

“The problem was nobody wanted to admit it. And they treated the problem of insolvency as if it were a problem of liquidity.”

“And you know what we think? This economy has lost one quarter of it’s GDP because of that. Extending it indefinitely.”

“It’s about time we end it.”

“The actual outcome and what we do with this economy and whether we carry on  extending the crisis into the future pretnding we solved the problem will depend on the outcome.”    

“If there is a nai : yes we are committed to signing on the dotted line the kind of agreement that was offered to us.”

“In which case they will be happy to open the banks. About an hour?”

“This country has had enough of it. We want to have difficult agreement. Difficult reform package. One that makes us cross many of our red lines political party.”

“We were prepared to do this for the sake of Europe and Greece. But tell us: Is this going to be the end of making us negotiate under conditions of crises?

“The answer is no. Because they they have absolutely no credible funding and proposal to come along with it.” 

“I don’t have the moral right to sign another Extend and Pretend which is condemning this economy to further deflation.”

“So let’s just face it. Ask any member of our audience at the moment of our investors. Would you invest in any country whose debt is not sustainable according to the IMF?”

“This is why investment has dried up. The only investment we had is speculative money that has come in – in and out – and no serious investment of productive capacity to make. Naturally.”

“So, we want to reform this country. And we are prepared even to accept reforms that do not have palatable thrust.”

“But we want to do it in the context of  investment culture and investment program takes  Grexit off the table.”

“The only way to take Grexit off the table is not to get rid of this government. The only way to get Grexit off the table is to get those funding cliffs and the unsustainability of the debt.” 

“”And you know what we say? This economy has lost one fourth of its GDP because of that. Extending and Pretending. It’s about time that we end it”.

“To sign this agreement? I prefer to cut my arm off. I’ve been saying this since I can remember.” 

“Remember I’m still going to be a member of Parliament. Together with the rest of the government.”

“And we are going to have a very solid base from which to make the point that it is about time Europe accept a very radical principle of democracy and the principle of rationality. Two principles that emanated from the Continent which have been set aside.” 

“Syriza is going to be the major force in Greek politics after Monday no matter what happens.”

“And we are going to make sure that this country is given the chance which it deserves to become a proper, first class – not second class or third class – within the European Union and the Eurozone.”

“At the moment we’ve been treated as if we are in a debt colony where don’t have rights.” 

“I left the job at the University of Texas to be here.” 

“But let me say this.” 

“The moment I decided to throw my hat in the ring – the political ring – I decided I am not going to leave. I am going to be here with the lot of them.”

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