Jean-Claude Juncker, the Luxembourg Prime Minister who also heads the Eurozone of the 17 countries using the euro as a currency will not meet with Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) leader Alexis Tsipras, the main opposition group in Greece, during a visit to Athens to discuss the country’s economic crisis with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras.
SYRIZA had requested the meeting, although Tsipras earlier this year refused to meet with the Troika of international lenders helping Greece, which includes the European Union. Juncker’s staff said he doesn’t have time to meet Tsipras, although it’s traditional for the Eurozone chief to meet the opposition leader when he’s in Greece.
SYRIZA officials said that Poul Thomsen, the head of the IMF task squad, and the government pressured Juncker to refrain from meeting with Tsipras, the most vocal critic of the ruling coalition, and of the EU-IMF-European Central Bank Troika. SYRIZA said it was a “mistake” for Juncker not to meet its leader. Juncker was due in Athens early on the evening of Aug. 22 to talk with Samaras about the government’s efforts to cut $14.16 billion from the budget over the next two years and then the two will go to the Acropolis Museum where a dinner will be hosted for the Eurozone head.
SYRIZA said that, “The monster of the Memorandum asks for more. The initial 11.5 billion euros of cuts are now 13.5 billion and they will become 15.5 billion until nothing is left, so the country will be given to the lenders.” Juncker also characterized a Greek exit from the Eurozone as technically possible but politically unviable.
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