Greek PM requests fresh mandate to move forward, no Grexit option

In his first interview after resigning last week to force snap general elections in autumn, Greece's outgoing Leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras defended his decision as a necessary step on Wednesday, requesting a fresh mandate to move forward and implement the new Greek bailout.

"The mandate of the January 25 elections was to negotiate with lenders the terms of future cooperation. That mandate has been exhausted after the July 12 euro zone summit agreement that paved the way to the bailout," the Greek leader told private Alpha broadcaster.

Tsipras stressed he was proud of the "hard battle" his government gave, despite reservations and criticism over the final result and the content of the third Greek bailout in five years.

The outgoing Premier insisted that the new bailout, despite problems, has potential to help Greece overcome the debt crisis and repeated that the alternative, a rift with creditors, would lead to a catastrophic financial meltdown.

"Grexit was never an option for the Radical Left SYRIZA party, but for the conservative circles in Europe," Tsipras said.

In a response to those who openly support Grexit, including MPs who broke away from SYRIZA last week to form a new anti-bailout party, he insisted that the battle for a better future for Greece should continue within Europe.

Following a round of mandates given to the leaders of the three largest parties in the Greek parliament since Friday to try to form a new government and avoid elections, President of the Hellenic Republic Prokopis Pavlopoulos was expected to appoint a caretaker Premier on Thursday or Friday to lead Greece to polls, according to the Constitution.

Tsipras appeared confident in Wednesday's interview that SYRIZA can win a clear parliamentary majority this time.

However, even in that case, he said, he would seek the formation of a new coalition government most likely with the Right-wing Independent Greeks party which was the junior partner in the outgoing administration.

The Greek Premier acknowledged that in his first short term in office since January he made some wrong estimates during negotiations and bad choices of aides.

"We underestimated the magnitude of reactions by conservative circles," Tsipras said, underlining that he did not expect that Greece would end up with capital controls imposed since June 29.

Referring to the controversial former Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis who was replaced in July, he said that initially he gave momentum to negotiations, but after a point he realized during a meeting that Greece's interlocutors "had switched off" when the former minister was talking.
 Xinhua - china.org.cn
27/8/15
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