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Tsipras Will Meet ECB’s Asmussen

Jorg-AsmussenAlexis Tsipras, leader of Greece’s major opposition party the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) which is opposed to international bailouts and the austerity measures that come with them, is due to meet European Central Bank (ECB) Executive Committee member Jörg Asmussen this week in Germany.
Tsipras was invited by left-wing party Die Linke. Asmussen recently visited Athens, but said he was unable to meet with  Tsipras who is a fierce critic of the Troika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-ECB that is putting up $325 billion in two bailouts to save the Greek economy.
Tsipras said if he’s ever elected he would either end or revise the memorandum with the Troika, rehire all fired workers and restore everyone’s pay and pensions that have been cut but has yet to say where he would find the money as Greece is broke and relying on loans to survive.
Tsipras said he wants Greece to give the Troika a so-called “haircut,” a buzzword that means Greece would simply renege on much of its debt, leaving it to the taxpayers in the other 16 Eurozone countries to pay the cost of generations of wild overspending by New Democracy Conservative and PASOK Socialist administrations that are now in a coalition government and  charged with firing many of the scores of thousands of workers they hired needlessly in return for votes.
Eurozone chief Mario Draghi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is up for re-election on Sept 22 and has backed Greek bailouts only with strict conditions, both have rejected out of hand any notion Greece will walk on some of its debt, although IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde has recommended the EU and ECB take losses while insisting her agency should be exempt.
The meeting between Tsipras and Asmussen is regarded solely as symbolic because for some reason the ECB wants to maintain communicatyion with the opposition party that has recently taken a slight lead in polls. Tsipras, who has bombarded the Troika and Samaras with criticism, has yet to unveil any alternative plan to save his country.

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