Samaras Says He Wants to Change the Troika Deal Too

ATHENS – Changing his tune before the rapidly-approaching June 17th elections and locked in a neck-to-neck duel with Coalition of the Radical Left leader (SYRIZA) leader Alexis Tsipiras whom he criticized for wanting to change the terms of Greece’s bailout deals with international lenders, New Democracy chief Antonis Samaras said that he too now wants to revise the deal he supported and signed.
Samaras had warned that Tsipras’ plans would force Greece out of the Eurozone but proposed he was confident he could renegotiate the terms to some of the harshest austerity measures he helped impose that worsened a deep recession and created 21.8 percent employment, and that this could be done without forcing a Greek exit. Tsipras had earlier stated that Greece, facing a second election as the May 6 ballot stalemated when none of the seven parties could garner enough votes to form a majority government in Parliament, could not fail this time to establish an immediate administrative body.
Samaras said he, too, wants that and told a press conference on June 13 that while securing Greece’s membership to the Eurozone was a crucial priority he nevertheless wants to overhaul the memorandum he had previously signed. “We will change the memorandum, the relentless recession cannot go on,” he said, echoing Tsipras’ words and tone. Samaras said Tspiras’ plans would force Greece out of the Eurozone while his would not, although the Troika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB) said any attempts by anyone in the next government to tinker with reforms could stop the money pipeline. Greece is surviving on a first bailout of $152 billion and awaiting a second for $173 billion that is in limbo under the elections results are in.
Tspiras said EU leaders would negotiate changes and Samaras said he now believes that as well. “Europe is changing, Greece has a chance at fair negotiation within this climate of change,” he said, without specifying what changes he would seek. Samaras had pledged to uphold pay cuts, tax hikes and slashed pensions he had earlier opposed and agreed with the Troika that the newly-elected government must make another $15 billion in cuts. Samaras said he supports these measures but wants to give Greece more time to implement them.
He said New Democracy had two other conditions for joining with other parties in a coalition government: securing Greece’s position in the Eurozone and modifying the memorandum, the same two conditions that Tsipras has set, but Samaras lashed out at Tsipras for refusing to elaborate on the emergency plan he claims to have drafted if negotiations break down with international creditors. “He says he doesn’t want to talk about Plan B as he doesn’t want the enemy to know, but what about the people?” Samaras said. He accused SYRIZA of gambling with Greece’s future, adding that Tsipras had “broken a world record” by not providing a single statistic in the entire pre-election campaign.
He said SYRIZA was aligned with terrorists. “There were cells within SYRIZA who had applauded Koufodinas,” he said referring to Dimitris Koufodinas, the convicted hit man and key member of the disbanded terrorist group November 17th. He pledged to crack down on corruption and privileges for politicians who have largely escaped sacrificing during the crisis and said that if politicians cannot account for descrepancies between their real and declared incomes and assets,  even though many have reportedly hidden their monies in secret foreign accounts, that the government would seize their funds, if they could find them. Greeks are seething over the fact that politicians and the wealthy are able to escape wrongdoing with impunity.
(Source: Kathimerini)