Samaras Says Grexit Would Be Catastrophe

By Andy Dabilis on September 16, 2012 

 

Again pleading for more time to lower Greece’s deficit and make more deep spending cuts on orders of international lenders, Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras repeated his warning that the alternative – Greece being forced out of the Eurozone, a so-called Grexit, and back to the ancient drachma – would be a “catastrophe,” from which the country would not recover for many years.
In an interview with the Washington Post, Samaras said the austerity measures insisted upon by the Troika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB) have worsened the country’s deep recession and that imposing more immediately would backfire.
Samaras, the New Democracy Conservative leader, is trying to convince the reluctant partners in his uneasy coalition, the PASOK Socialists and tiny Democratic Left, to go along with another $14.6 billion (11.7 billion euros) in cuts, primarily aimed at workers, pensioners and the poor that the Troika has demanded. Samaras said Greece had to “make sure that we abide by what we have signed because we believe that what they call a ‘Grexit’ is not an option for us. It would be a catastrophe.”
While he has not asked the Troika directly, Samaras has used the media as a conduit to ask for more time and repeated that in the Post interview. “Instead of the (cuts package) taking place over two years, it would be best if it were to take place over four years. “We are talking about an extension to 2016,” he said. The current cuts are planned to take place from 2013-14.
“Our determination is a given. It is 11.7 billion euros in expenditure cuts,” he said. Samaras said the package would be approved. “It will pass Parliament because we all realize the No. 1 prerequisite for our future is to stay in the Eurozone,” he said. The premier, who held meetings with European officials in recent weeks, claimed the outlook toward Greece has improved. “If you look at the signals a month ago and then look at them recently, they are very different,” he said.