Alexis Tsipras remarks came hours after lawmakers in Germany, a key rescue loan provider, overwhelmingly approved the four-month extension of Greece's extant deal.
"The bailout agreements are over, both in form and in essence," Tsipras told a cabinet meeting. "Some people are betting on a third bailout in June ... but we will disappoint them."
Tsipras' radical left Syriza party, which is governing in coalition with the small right-wing Independent Greeks, was elected a month ago on a highly ambitious platform of cancelling the austerity measures that accompanied Greece's 240 billion euro ($270 billion) rescue loans.
But despite repeated and often unorthodox attempts to win over other European creditor countries, Greece was forced to retreat from initial electoral promises that included a massive new write-down of the country's crushing debt.
Last week, fellow members of the 19-member eurozone agreed on the four-month loan agreement extension, in return for which Greece offered a fluid commitment to budget reforms.
Tsipras said his first act of legislation would be to table a draft law on Monday to address what Syriza calls the "humanitarian crisis" — extensive poverty brought about by the deep income cuts and shockingly high unemployment resulting from creditor-mandated cutbacks.
"This is our foremost duty toward a society that has been severely tried for five years," he said. "The bill will contain specific action to provide free power and food to thousands of families that need it, to make Greece once again a civilized country ... So that no child is cold, no child faints from hunger or goes to school hungry."
Tsipras also pledged to provide housing for 30,000 people, limit evictions, and facilitate payment terms for an estimated 3.7 million people with tax debts of up to 5,000 euros ($5,620).
Critics, including several within the governing Syriza party, have accused the government of capitulation and backtracking on its election promises.
About 8,000 Communist Party supporters gathered outside Parliament on Friday in the first sizeable anti-government demonstration as Tsipras convened his Cabinet.
Earlier, Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis told Ant1 television that the vagueness in the agreement with eurozone finance ministers was what Greece's EU partners wanted.
"We are very proud of the degree of ambiguity. And I use a term, constructive ambiguity," Varoufakis said.
On the issue of increasing value added tax, Varoufakis insisted it would not be increased on islands or border areas, or for medications, food, or books. VAT was reduced in some areas and for some items from 23 percent to 13 percent, but Greece's creditors have sought for it to be increased in order to raise tax revenue for state coffers.
"I will search to find a tax rate on an insignificant item so we can show goodwill," Varoufakis said.
The government, meanwhile, has a liquidity crunch to deal with. The country's creditors have said they will not release the remaining funds in Greece's bailout until the government presents concrete measures, expected to be agreed on by April.
Money has been tight, and figures released Friday showed Greece's economy shrank slightly in the fourth quarter of 2014. The statistics authority said the economy contracted 0.4 percent compared with the third quarter, on seasonally adjusted basis.
Greece's economy has lost a quarter of its value compared to pre-crisis levels in 2008.
Original Article
Source: huffingtonpost.com/
Author: AP
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