Mr. Tsipras, who is in Brussels with four of his main ministers, appears to have tried to explain to his colleagues that even if he were to agree to the proposal presented by the institutions it would be impossible to pass such a memorandum from the Greek parliament. His primary goal is to achieve a political solution that would overpass any disagreements between the technocrats who handle the practical part of the negotiations.
Two equally effective players; the IMF and the German Ministry of Finance, oppose Tsipras’ plan. On Monday, Mrs. Lagarde took part in the negotiations and she had given the green light for the achievement of a deal. This attitude changed during the next 48 hours, when the IMF expressed its disagreement with the proposed plan since it found that it was mainly focused on overtaxing the Greek populace and businesses thus making future economic growth even harder than it already is in a country which is devastated by a five year old crisis and the subsequent recession. On Thursday, it was the turn of the German Fin.Min. W.Schauble to put a stop to the negotiations when he refused to consider two agreement proposals, one by the institutions and one by the Greek side, and caused the Eurogroup to stop in order to reconvene on Saturday only if the two sides had managed to come up with one single document.
One cannot help but see the paradox; Mrs. Lagarde asks for policies that would lead to a more viable economic future for Greece, and to make this happen political decisions must be taken, while Mr. Schauble asks that politics have the least possible effect in the negotiations since the technocrats must first and foremost come to an agreement. These, ofcourse, are their expressed reasonings. Should one chose not to believe them, the paradox remains only the names have to be exchanged.
A notable statement came today from the spokesperson of the German finance ministry who stated that Greece should accept the “very generous offer” that the institutions have proposed.
The exact same phrase was used later by Mrs. Merkel who also went on to declare that there is no “Plan B” should Saturday’s Eurogroup fail to come up with an agreement between Greece and its creditors. Yesterday Mrs. Merkel had asked for a solution “before the markets open on Monday” thus bringing forward the threat of capital controls and closed banks in Greece.
In the meantime the Greek economy, and the Greek society, await.