Greek PM: Wasting Greek People's Sacrifices Woule Be Lethal

The announcements of European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi earlier today regarding the conditional inclusion of the Greek assets in a wider ECB assets purchase program, were followed by a public proclamation from Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras a few minutes ago.

Speaking from the government headquarters, just three days ahead of the critical general elections, Samaras underlined that wasting the Greek people’s sacrifices would be lethal.

“Without [the Greek program] evaluation completion, we will be isolated and in suspension. While our policy guarantees the evaluation completion, the main opposition’s position keeps us away of this cosmogony. The main opposition has not understood what exactly is happening. It would be lethal if our sacrifices would go to waste. The final decision belongs to the Greek people’s discretion.”

Draghi announced today the purchase of assets amounting to 60 billion euros per month, in order to stimulate growth and address the threat of deflation. He clarified that the purchases of government bonds will be based on ECB’s capital, ie. the share of the national central banks in ECB’s capital. Regarding the purchase of Greek assets, the ECB President highlighted that “additional eligibility criteria will be applied in the case of countries under a European Union/International Monetary Fund adjustment program.”