ANKARA
The Greek ruling coalition has admitted that it may have to accept an unpopular compromise agreement in order to complete the bailout offered by its creditors.
The parliamentary spokesman for Syriza, which leads the ruling coalition, Nikos Filis told Greek newspaper Kathimerini Friday that the negotiations had not been “planned in the most effective way”, and that the government might have to give in on key sticking points in the talks.
“It is a compromise; we are not hiding it,” Filis said.
While Syriza parliamentary spokesman spoke about a compromise, junior coalition members tried to sound a defiant note in the ongoing negotiations.
“If a solution has not been found by the end of the month, we will not pay the IMF," Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos said Friday said in a statement to private channel MEGA TV.
Kammenos, who is also leader of the junior coalition ANEL-Independent Greeks, said that the Greek government would not back down on its negotiations as it had already made concessions.
He added that "deal has to include measures that will render the debt sustainable so that Greece can enter a growth course".
However, Kammenos reassured that the government intended to keep Greece in the eurozone.
"We have no intention of exiting the eurozone even though some would like us to do so," he said.
Also, Alternate Social Insurance Minister Dimitris Stratoulis said, "We are on our feet and we are giving the struggle for the Greek people's rights".
"We are not afraid," he said, adding that "we will remain adamant before the pressure for pension cuts".
"IMF's demands for 1 percent of GDP reduction to the pension expenses or €1.8 billion are rejected; they are antisocial and cruel,” he said.
However, Syriza Member of European Parliament Kostas Chrysogonos had indicated Thursday that the Greek government might back down. “It’s not as if we’ve won a war against our lenders in order to impose conditions on them,” he said in an interview with Greek newspaper Kathimerini.
Meanwhile, Greek shares dropped by 4 percent Friday morning a day after the International Monetary Fund announced their departure from the negotiations.
On Thursday, IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said: “There are major differences between us in most key areas. There has been no progress in narrowing these differences recently. Thus, we are well away from an agreement". He added that the fund remained ready to resume talks. “The ball is very much in Greece’s court right now,” Rice added.
EU officials have expressed increasing frustration with the Greek government. “The day is coming, I’m afraid, that someone says the game is over. We have no more time,” Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, said on Thursday after meeting with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.
Greek negotiators are to meet with the Eurogroup on June 18 in what now looks to be a final showdown.
Greece is set to run out of funds to run its banks and public services by the end of June. The government must also repay about $2 billion to the IMF by the end of the month.
Greece must agree reforms to cut government spending and produce a budget surplus if it is to receive the next 7.2 billion euros ($8.1 billion) in bailout aid from the IMF, the European Central Bank and the EU.
Without external funding, Greece could default on payments due to its creditors, raising the risk of it possibly leaving the 19-member eurozone.
*WITH ADDITIONAL REPORTING By Magda Panoutsopoulou from Athens
