by Costas Efimeros

After the blackmailing agreement reached on the 20th February Eurogroup, which ThePressProject had revealed, technocrats started working on the direction of extending the loan agreement, as it was settled with Yanis Varoufakis. Today, speaking with governmental sources -that wish to remain anonymous- we have learnt the background story that followed. But let’s take it from the start.
 
The tangle of developments began to unfold yesterday with the resignation of Christos Sklavounis from the Presidency of the Financial Stability Fund. It seems his resignation was asked by the government when it was established that in the return of 10.9 billion euros from the FSF to the EFSF bailout mechanism, 1.2 billion euros that had to remain in Greece were included. The 1.2 billion euros were not to be returned because the FSF had covered up the recapitalization of banks up to that amount from other funds, rather than bonds of the EFSF. In simple words it seems that Greece returned money they did not get from Europe.
 
Furthermore, sources of the government argue that the repayment occurred without previously informing the Minister of Finance, something which doesn’t seem to have happened for the first time.
 
Today several mass media, mainly close to the right, present the loan agreement as an exclusive revealing of what Varoufakis supposedly signed at the end of February. The same document was used by a New Democracy MP,  Dora Bakogianni, in order to officially submit a question in parliament, asking what Greece has pledged to and when the rest of the MePs will be notified.
 
Before we continue, it is worth clarifying that the exclusive documents that Greek mass media have acquired after research (they even put their logos on them) have already been uploaded for over a month on the official EFSF and ESM websites. In fact, they are neither exclusive, nor breaking and they have been republished hundreds of times by websites (by TPP as well) during those crucial days.
 
But what is the difference? While Vima (a major Greek newspaper) had published a first draft of the loan agreement as early as February 23, someone noticed that at the end of the file, which is uploaded on the EFSF, there is a page for the signatures of the parties. Among the alleged signatories, Yanis Varoufakis’ name also exists. The uploaded document does not bear signatures (which everybody is pointing out) but still this was seen as a very strong indication that Yanis Varoufakis has actually signed the extension of the Memorandum.
 
The truth, however, as we have been informed, is different and therefore, earlier today, the government reposnded that it will submit to the Parliament Yanis Varoufakis signature for everyone to see the actual document he has signed. Yet another tough evening for Tsipras.

According to TPP’s information, the document for the extension of the loan agreement (and the Memorandum consequently) that is posted on the website of the EFSF was not sent to Yanis Varoufakis but to the Governor of the Bank of Greece, Mr. Stournaras.
 
The Troika considered, based on the understanding of February 20th, that the previous loan agreement should be re-signed and Stournaras & Sakellariou had no problem with that but Varoufakis refused to put his signature on it.
 
After that, several hours of communication followed, while which the scenario of a permanent rapture with the Troika was open. Finally, it was decided to sign a request that would essentially include the date of extension of the previous loan agreement. This document had to be signed by another Greek official who refused to consent.
 
During this second round of extreme pressure, that our sources inform us the scenario of rapture again felt likely, and after Alexis Tsipras asked for this official’s signature or his resignation, the solution came from someone who at the time was a simple citizen and today holds the position of the President of the Hellenic Republic, Prokopis Pavlopoulos.
 
Therefore, this is why the document posted by EFSF, according to Greek officials, does not bear the signatures mentioned in the 11th page.