Although newly elected Premier Alexis Tsipras won the confidence vote, there are growing fears that there could be a major rift within his own party from none other Lafazanis. The latter minister said in his speech in parliament that now that SYRIZA has come to power, the Memorandum and the troika should be viewed as a thing of the past (or are 'finished'). Basically, Lafazanis set the government's policy statements ablaze, as well as spread quite a bit of uncertainty on the markets, by leaving spikes against his own party's leadership.
Following Varoufakis' address which noted that the Finance Ministry approves 70 percent of the Memorandum, as well as privatizations that have been already programmed (and which are to be examined individually), Lafazanis rushed to slam him by saying:
"If there are still a few who are weary on whether we will implement 50-60% or 70% percent of the Memorandum, we want them to know that the Memorandums and the Troika are finished."He then sent a warning to all concerned that SYRIZA's program is not going to be compromised.
"Our radical progressive program will be fully implemented, strictly and literally.
“If the major players in the European Union think they can blackmail us they must know they are messing with the wrong country, people and government”, the minister added, stressing that the Greek government will not be blackmailed as it has the Greek people to support it.Lafazanis said that Europe will either change or will not have a future and that maintaining the Greek government’s current program will not only bring a win for the Greek people but also hope across Europe.
In his opinion, the crisis was born in the US but has not expired and is hitting the Eurozone that has "become the most problematic area of the global economy".
He then reiterated that the further privatization of DEH (the Public Power Corporation or PPC) and ADMIE (the Independent Power Transmission Operator) will stop.
“So far DEI was serving private interests. The goal now is to reduce the electricity prices to 40% for households and small businesses”.Lafazanis said that the Greek government is going to review the agreement regarding the area at Hellinikon and should use all legal means against any gold investment in Skouries, Chalkidiki but is going to support the employees in the mines.
A report from the Wall Street Journal said that the state’s 67% stake in the Piraeus Port Authority is one of the biggest divestments of an ambitious privatization plan agreed to by the previous New Democracy government with the Troika to continue receiving bailout funds.
“The Piraeus sale is on. It will proceed as planned,” a senior finance-ministry official told The Wall Street Journal.Those who already know about the deal said the port sale could yield up to 800 million Euros, and binding offers are expected by the end of March.
Lafazanis statements go against those of Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis who openly told Parliament that he was going to inform the Eurogroup on Wednesday that the Piraeus port privatization is going to proceed as planned. Surely, this will not score points with the EU at these crucuail negotiations. His statements have obviously backtracked on the previous statements made from various SYRIZA MPs who are parading on television promising to freeze any such deals. Will Lafazanis, and all those who follow his lead, become toxic to their own party which is obviously taking a more liberal turn on its campaign pledges and actually beginning to get a grip of reality? Looks like it, but we will wait and see how it unfolds (and if this will cause SYRIZA to split in two).
References in Greek
- http://www.parapolitika.gr/parapolitikablog/%CF
- http://www.hellas-now.com/2015/02/o_10.html
- http://www.parakato.gr/2015/02/blog-post_274.html
- http://dimtris-kypriotis.blogspot.gr/2015/02/blog-post_75.html#more
- http://loutrakiodusseas.blogspot.gr/2015/02/blog-post_277.html#.VNtenCz7LNk
- http://vimaiteas.blogspot.gr/2015/02/o_72.html
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