Venizelos’ SOS for an agreement by tomorrow tonight

Evangelos Venizelos conveyed to Lucas Papademos the ultimatum given to our country by the markets and our European partners in order to receive commitments from our leaders and see the immediate realisation of the prerequisite demands of the Troika.

As shown after the Eurogroup videoconference, the PSI agreement has been completed, but there are considerations required on the part of our country. The decisions on the privatization and recapitalization of banks have been locked, and what remains is the agreement of the political leaders on wage cuts in the private sector and the additional measures for 2012.

Venizelos said that these measures will be relatively limited and that for the first time they agreed to implement a mechanism for compressing prices to counter high prices for the benefit of the weak who are affected more by the crisis.

He said that the distance between failure and success is small and only one misunderstanding is sufficient to destroy everything, thus sending the message to political leaders who are expected to meet tomorrow. He added that we should finish by tomorrow night to meet the deadline and make a timely offer for the exchange of bonds.

He also said that we are not far from getting out of the deadend, but that we are still at a very critical point.