EUROZONE-GREECE/TALKS REAX Greeks nervous about default after debt talks fail once more

Record ID: 151215

  • Title: EUROZONE-GREECE/TALKS REAX Greeks nervous about default after debt talks fail once more
  • Date: 15th June 2015
  • Summary: ATHENS, GREECE (JUNE 15, 2015) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF PARLIAMENT TOURISTS IN FRONT OF PRESIDENTIAL GUARD VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WALKING WOMAN BUYING FOOD FOOD STALL MEN SITTING ON BENCHES (SOUNDBITE) (Greek) 66-YEAR-OLD ATHENS RESIDENT, STELIOS, SAYING: "We can't stoop any lower than this. They must do something, some kind of compromise. I hope they will find a solution in the e
  • Embargoed: 30th June 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Greece
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA5MK977YQY7BPQJTJDDDIMBUXF
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The Greek government stuck to demands on Monday (June 15) that its creditors propose less harsh terms for a cash-for-reforms deal after talks collapsed.
    The latest in a series of negotiations broke down after the European Commission again dismissed proposals from the Greek side in Brussels over the weekend.
    Creditors said Athens had failed to offer anything new to secure funding to repay 1.6 billion euros to the International Monetary Fund by the end of June.
    Following what it called a last attempt at a solution, the Commission said euro zone finance ministers would address the issue when they meet on Thursday (June 18).
    Fed up with years of austerity, Athens has balked at demands to raise taxes and cut pensions in order to narrow its fiscal deficit.
    But in the square in front of the Greek parliament, Athens residents said they were fed up with the back and forth between Athens, Brussels and various creditors.
    Many want the crisis resolved, with some calling on the government to give in a little whilst others demanded the EU and the creditors lower some of their demands.
    Although opinions differed in the streets on how to resolve the crisis, they were united in their worry about possible default and leaving the eurozone.
    "We can't stoop any lower than this. They must do something, some kind of compromise. I hope they will find a solution in the end," said 66-year-old Stelios.
    "They must clinch a deal. Of course I am worried," said 73-year-old Christos Fifis.
    "What I want is that we get on with it. We are all worried, we don't know what is happening. I can't see what else they can do," said another woman who did not wish to be named.
    "Greece is hanging by a thread. We will be saved, but with great sacrifices," said 66-year-old carpenter Lambros Dimitros.
    "I blame Europe. They put a lot of pressure on us, a lot of pressure. We have austerity. How much more austerity can there be in Greece? The European Union needs to lower its demands." said 40-year-old mechanic Dimitris.
    "It's a mess. It can't be fixed, because with this government we cannot find a solution. They keep saying different things, they come and go [the talks], they fight, they quarrel. Where will this take us?" wondered 82-year-old Nikos Michas.
    "The least worst thing that can happen to us is that we clash. The least worst is we clash," said 58-year-old teacher George Bairaikis.
    Antonia Halepidou said she was willing to suffer the pain of more austerity for the sake of a resolution.
    "We must not leave the euro. This is what we care about. The most important thing is that we stay in Europe. We are Europeans and we want to stay in. Nothing else. That's it. If we need to suffer two or three more years, it doesn't matter, but we must not leave. That is the main issue," she said.
    Newspaper headlines on Monday morning warned of an impending default.
    "Blackout in Brussels over pensions", read the headline in the Ethnos newspaper. "Clash climate opens the door to bankruptcy", said the Eleftheros Typos, whilst the Efsyn carried a photograph of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras saying he would not compromise: "We will not bury democracy", it read.
    In a statement to a Greek newspaper, the Ton Syntakton, Tsipras made his first public comments since the talks broke down, explaining that Greece would wait for its creditors to become more realistic and accusing them of making unreasonable demands for political ends.
    "One can only see a political purposefulness in the insistence of creditors on new cuts in pensions after five years of looting under the bailouts," Tsipras said
    "We will await patiently until the institutions accede to realism," he said. "We do not have the right to bury European democracy at the place where it was born."
    Tsipras will meet his negotiating team later on Monday, a Greek local radio station reported.
    A spokesman for Greece's ruling Syriza party said the country would not back down from its previous negotiating position while also stressing that the government would not abandon the talks.
    European leaders have piled pressure on Greece in recent days to come up with a proposal acceptable to its creditors.
    European Commission Vice President Jyrki Katainen continued in that vein on Monday, telling an Austrian newspaper that the ball remained in Greece's court to find a solution.
    Greece's Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said in an interview with Germany's Bild newspaper that it was possible to reach a deal quickly if Chancellor Angela Merkel took part in the talks.
    He also ruled out the chance of a "Grexit" because it was not a sensible solution.
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