Greece will no longer work with troika : Finance minister

Greece’s newly-elected anti-austerity Finance Minister says his government will no longer cooperate with the troika of international lenders or seek aid extension.

Yanis Varoufakis made the announcement on Friday, following a meeting with Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem.

Referring to the troika, the Greek finance minister said, "We have no intention of co-operating with a three-member committee whose goal is to implement a program whose logic we consider anti-European."

He added that an extension for the eurozone lenders’ February 28 deadline would not be sought.      

"This platform enabled us to win the confidence of the Greek people," he told reporters following the meeting. "Our first action as a government will not be to reject the rationale of questioning this program through a request to extend it."

In 2010, Greece suffered severe budget cuts in return for a €240-billion ($270 billion) bailout from the troika -- the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Central Bank (ECB).

Eurogroup chief

Dijsselbloem said that Greece should honor its reform commitments.

He added that Eurogroup -- the eurozone finance ministers group -- and Greece had a "mutual interest in the further recovery of the Greek economy inside the eurozone," and warned against Athens taking unilaterally actions towards renegotiating its bailout.

He added that a decision concerning the upcoming deadline would be reached but rejected Greece’s attempts towards holding a special debt conference, saying one already existed in the form of the Eurogroup.

International creditors challenged

On Wednesday, Greek Prime Minster Alexis Tsipras openly challenged international creditors by stopping privatization plans agreed upon under the country's bailout deal.

During his first meeting with cabinet members, Tsipras said that they could not disappoint voters already battered by a drop in living standards caused by austerity measures.

“We are coming in to radically change the way that policies and administration are conducted in this country," he told ministers.

Halting privatization

The Greek government first signaled it was not willing to uphold creditor commitments on Tuesday after announcing a halt to the privatization of the port of Piraeus for which China's Cosco Group and other companies had been short-listed.

It said that the sale of shares in the Public Power Corporation of Greece -- the country’s biggest utility -- and refiner Hellenic Petroleum would be put on ice.

Power grid, airports, and motorway asset sales are also to be halted.

The government also announced plans to rehire employees in the public sector who had suffered unfair layoffs.

The reinstatement will include a group of Finance Ministry janitors whose plight attracted publicity last year. The government also announced pension rises for the elderly with low income.

New prime minster sworn in

On Monday, the Syriza leader, Tsipras, was sworn in as Greek prime minister at the Presidential Palace in the capital Athens, pledging to do his utmost to “to protect the interests of the Greek people.”

According to the Greek Interior Ministry, Syriza won 149 seats in the country’s 300-seat parliament.

Syriza is a fierce opponent of Greece’s bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund and eurozone countries, and has vowed to reconsider the austerity measures that have caused mounting dissatisfaction in the country.

Libertarian Marxist

On Tuesday, the Greek Prime Minister recruited Varoufakis, a harsh bailout critic, as his minister of finance, in a show of tough line with international creditors.

Varoufakis, an economist known as a “libertarian Marxist,” was picked by Tsipras’ leftist Syriza party, which swept Greek elections thanks to support by austerity-weary voters.

Varoufakis, 53, has long been a strong critic of Greece’s bailout program and has never ceased to criticize Europe’s austerity policy with regard to the world’s financial crisis.

Coalition Government  

On Monday, the Syriza leader, Tsipras, met with his counterpart in the nationalist Independent Greeks (ANEL) party in a bid to forge a collation government.

 "From this moment, the country has a government. Independent Greeks give a vote of confidence to Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras," said ANEL's leader, Panos Kammenos, after meeting Tsipras.

SRK/AS/MHB

Related stories:

Greece debt relief not on radar: EU Fri Jan 30, 2015

‘Greek PM puts privatization on ice Wed Jan 28, 2015

Do not expect Greece to clear debt’ Tue Jan 27, 2015

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