Brussels, 11/02/2015 (Agence Europe) - The summit of the European leaders, to be held in Brussels this Thursday 11 February, will be the first of Alexis Tsipras, the Greek Prime Minister.
Although no substantial debate is anticipated - the dossier has to be resolved at ministerial level within the Eurogroup - a number of sources reiterated the possibility open to the leader to take the floor. For the several delegations which have not yet met the new Greek government, this will be an opportunity to sound out Tsipras' intentions, objectives and state of mind.
Previously, the European leaders have on a number of occasions taken the opportunity offered by the summits clearly to reiterate that Greece was part of the eurozone. This time, they are not expected to do so. Obviously, this position has not changed, “but now the ball is in the Greeks' court”, as one diplomat summed it up. The President of the Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, will report back to the Twenty-Eight on the outcome of the discussions at an extraordinary meeting of the Eurogroup on Wednesday evening (see other article).
Tsipras “will be addressing an auditorium which is not quite the Greek parliament”, joked another diplomat, in reference to his speech made by the young Prime Minister earlier this week, claiming repayment of the Nazi debt to Greece or simply putting an end to the Greek bailout plan. This speech won him the confidence (160 votes in favour, 137 against) of the national parliament, on Tuesday evening. These figures reflect the strength of the new government coalition, but it is not enough to elect a new President of the Republic, for which 180 votes are needed. It is the vote of the candidate of the Samaras government which precipitated the country into early elections, a diplomat noted on Wednesday.
The vote at the Greek parliament followed a somewhat defiant speech by the Prime Minister, in which he said that his country “cannot return to an age of bailouts and suppression”. The German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, “can ask us to do so however he wants, but we will not be asking for an extension of the assistance plan”, he also said. (Élodie Lamer)