"Election season from March onwards"

After March, when the PSI negotiations and the new loan agreement have been completed, was the determination of the time of elections by Secretary of State and government spokesman, Pantelis Kapsis, during an interview on ANT1 TV station.

“There is no absolute determination of the timeline, but it is clear that these negotiations will last at least until March”, he stated, adding: “By the end of March, we will have been in election season. For how long, no one knows”.

Mr. Kapsis acknowledged that there is friction among parties supporting the government, but attributed it to the fact that “we are performing an untested experiment on Greece and this causes friction. I believe we can overcome it. We must overcome it. We are facing this enormous task. We aim to receive 89 bn. Euros at the end of this effort. You can understand this is huge for the Greek economy”.

About the possibility of further measures, the government spokesman stated that it might happen “because we did not do what we were supposed to do. It’s important that we can understand this” and added “ if we want to leave Europe, the Euro, we can just stay enclosed in our shell”.

“At this moment”, he continued, “there is still no such issue.  I’m not saying there will not be, but not currently. The second thing we must know is that the Troika cares for changes rather than measures sometimes. It is up to us to implement an efficient programme with our changes in order to proceed with a number of structural issues in the future, which will bring in more revenue. As to what measures will be required, it is not yet certain”.

The Secretary of State emphasized finally that one of the obligations of the Papademos government is to produce a new tax bill “if all three parties agree to support it”.