Brussels, 18/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - The outcome of the general elections in Greece on Sunday 20 September was uncertain on Friday 18 September, opinion polls were putting either Syriza or New Democracy in the lead. The eurozone is not worried about the outcome.
Latvian finance minister Janis Reirs said in an interview with Bloomberg: “If one or the other wins the elections, that's a guarantee that the reforms will continue. There is one question: has Tsipras been able to create a team that's for reform? That's the only unknown, if he wins. If the other side wins, it's clear that they'll carry the reforms further.”
The leader of New Democracy, Syriza's main opponent, Evangelos Meimarakis, said on Friday: “It's high time we did away with incompetence. The Syriza experiment ends on Sunday”. He added, however, that he wanted to form a national team with those who want to take part in it and those who don't want to can take their own path.
In an interview with Euronews on Tuesday 15 September, Alexis Tsipras said that Syriza was the leading political party in Greece and he felt that an absolute majority was totally achievable. Even if Syriza wins an absolute majority, he said it would seek partners for government and if it didn't win an absolute majority, then it would have its own programme, its own plan, and there will always be parties or parliamentarians who don't want to take the risk of new elections.
Former Greek finance minister Euclid Tsakalotos said the question of whether the Memorandum was economically viable or not would depend on the combined success of three factors over the next four or five months, namely the success of the first lenders' monitoring mission, bank recapitalisation and reducing the debt.
On the question of debt, Tsipras talked about a mini-writedown with a reduction in the cost of borrowing. According to the debt viability analysis carried out by Athens' lenders, the Greek debt will remain viable if the gross financing needs remain below 15% of GDP each year (see EUROPE 11357). German chancellor Angela Merkel said recently that debt viability should be considered in the light of gross financing needs (see EUROPE 11378). (Elodie Lamer)