Loan Talks: ‘Greece will not cut salaries and pensions’

ATHENS: Greece’s left-wing government will not abandon its refusal to cut salaries and pensions in tough talks with its EU-IMF creditors, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Friday. “Certain people cannot have at the back of their minds the notion that as time goes on, the endurance of the Greek side will be tested and that its red lines will fade,” Tsipras told a conference. “If they have it in mind, they should forget it, this choice will bring the opposite” to a deal, he said. Four months of deadlock between Greece’s new radical Syriza-led government and its EU-IMF creditors over the reforms needed to release a final €7.2 billion in bailout funds has led to concerns Athens is running critically short of cash and may soon end up defaulting, which could set off a messy exit from the euro. The government is reportedly hoping to reach a deal in early June.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 17^th, 2015.

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