MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Earlier in the day, Greece’s parliament voted for a second package of measures to open bailout talks against the backdrop of a warning by the country’s Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research (IOBE) think-tank of a two-year recession.
“This agreement serves the creditors, as did the previous analogue memorandums. It will not drive Greece out of the crisis. On the opposite, it will worsen the tragic place of the Greek economy and society,” Lafazanis said.
The former energy minister and current member of the ruling Syriza party's left wing was replaced with Panos Skourletis in a cabinet reshuffle last week, following the first vote in support of bailout measures. Some 64 out of 300 lawmakers, mostly Syriza hardliners, voted against painful austerity-based reforms in exchange for a three-year $95-billion package.
“The recent agreement with the institutions [of international creditors] accepted by the government under the pressure of the EU is unacceptable.”
Athens used a European Commission $7.6-billion short-term bridge loan to repay some debts to the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund earlier this week.
Greece has amassed a debt-to-GDP ratio of nearly 170 percent, most of which it owes to the Eurogroup nations, the IMF and the ECB. Its negotiations with creditors over the third bailout package are due to start Friday.
