EUROZONE-GREECE/ECB PAYMENT-MINISTER Greek gov't pays ECB bond; Tsakalotos discusses snap poll

Record ID: 143242

  • Title: EUROZONE-GREECE/ECB PAYMENT-MINISTER Greek gov't pays ECB bond; Tsakalotos discusses snap poll
  • Date: 20th August 2015
  • Summary: ATHENS, GREECE (AUGUST 20, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF EXTERIOR OF GREEK PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE GREEK AND EUROPEAN UNION FLAGS GREEK PRIME MINISTER, ALEXIS TSIPRAS, LEAVING HIS OFFICE AND GETTING INTO CAR CAR LEAVING
  • Embargoed: 4th September 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Greece
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVABGREEDJYA6RG4UOCIKKKYM5YQ
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: PART QUALITY AS INCOMING
    Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras met on Thursday (August 20) with senior advisers to discuss whether to call early elections to quell a rebellion in his leftist Syriza party, at the same time the country made a 3.2 billion euro ($3.56 billion) payment to the European Central Bank on a maturing government bond, according to government officials.
    Greek state television said on Thursday that Tsipras is set to call early elections, after ministers have openly debated for days about what the government should do after a large number of hard left Syriza lawmakers refused to back the bailout in parliament last week.
    Greece received the first tranche of funds from its new bailout loan on Thursday after the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) approved a rescue of up to 86 billion euros ($96 billion) on Wednesday.
    The first tranche amounts to 13 billion euros, of which about 12 billion euros will be used to pay down debt, including an earlier bridge loan and the maturing Greek government bond held by the ECB.
    This initial sum was paid in cash. Another 10 billion euros for the re-capitalisation of banks was sent to a segregated account in the form of ESM notes.
    The Greek finance minister, Euclid Tsakalotos, assured depositors that now they could trust the Greek banking system and urged them to bring their savings back into the country.
    "I think that people can - because of the nature of the capital controls we have and because of the bank re-capitalisation, which we believe will have been completed by January 1, 2016 - can view the banking system with greater trust. I think that the Greek people from now on, whether they have hidden money hidden under their mattress, as they say, or abroad, can now bring it back," said Tsakalotos speaking in parliament.
    Tsakalotos also addressed the issue of snap polls.
    "I think these elections that from what I hear are probably imminent, I think that they are different from those held in 2012, because in 2012 there was no deal, we went to the polls to see who would manage to negotiate a deal. Now, this deal exists," said Tsakalotos.
    Tsipras - who remains hugely popular in Greece and is widely expected to return to power if elections were held now - had been widely expected to call snap polls at some point in the autumn after a bruising seven months in office that saw Greece nearly crash out of the eurozone and shut its banks for three weeks to survive a battle with foreign creditors.
    After campaigning against bailouts, the 41-year-old prime minister accepted last month Greece's third bailout, which demands tax increases and spending cuts, to avoid a banking collapse.
    But the votes in parliament to pass the austerity measures laid bare a revolt by nearly a third of Syriza lawmakers, forcing Tsipras to rely on opposition support and robbing him of a guaranteed parliamentary majority.
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