ATHENS Greece’s prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, declared victory on Saturday after the funding agreement reached with the finance ministers of the eurozone, despite major concessions agreed to avoid financial collapse.
On Friday, after weeks of angry exchanges with representatives of the eurozone, Greece secured a four-month extension of its bailout that dispels the immediate threat that the country runs out of funds in March and is forced to leave the area euro.
After German conservative politicians ridicule the leftist administration of Prime Minister Tsipras insisted that the agreement canceled commitments distanced Athens austerity and the “troika” of lenders comprised of European inspectors and the International Monetary Fund.
“Yesterday (Friday) took a decisive step, leaving austerity, bailouts and troika’ (the European Central Bank, the International M onetary Fund and the European Commission),” Tsipras said in a televised message. “We won a battle, not the war. The difficulties, the real difficulties … I come, “he said.
Some Greek officials feared that failure to reach agreement, there would have been a bank run on Tuesday when the country’s banks retake their activities after a holiday celebrated in Greece on Monday.
Athens insists that the agreement with the finance ministers of the euro zone should reassure savers, who thought they could impose capital controls as a prelude to a Greek exit from the block.
A source ECB also ruled restrictions on the right of depositors to withdraw their deposits, dismissing fears that the Greek banking system can be “upside down”.
Syriza Tsipras and his party came to power last month with promises of ending the bail out program for Greece by the EU and IMF, terminate cooperation with the troika of international lenders detested, and abandon austerity measures. Reuters
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