The full speech of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, calling for a referendum on lenders’ bailout terms.

Text extracted from Reuters.

My fellow Greeks,

For the past six months the Greek government has been giving battle in conditions of unprecedented economic asphyxiation, to implement your mandate, of Jan. 25. It was a mandate to negotiate with our partners to end austerity and to restore prosperity and social justice to our country.

(It was) for a viable agreement which would respect both democracy, common European rules and would lead to a definitive exit from the crisis.

Throughout this negotiation period, we were asked to adopt bailout agreements which were agreed with previous governments, even though these were categorically condemned by the Greek people in the recent elections.

But we did not, even for a moment, contemplate yielding. That is, to effectively betray your own trust.

After five months of tough negotiations our partners, unfortunately, concluded at the Eurogroup the day before last with a proposal, an ultimatum, to the Hellenic Republic and the Greek people.

An ultimatum which contravenes the founding principles and values of Europe. The value of our common European structure.

The Greek government was asked to accept a proposal which accumulates unbearable new burdens on the Greek people and undermines the recovery of Greek society and its economy, not only maintaining uncertainty, but by amplifying social imbalances even further.
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The Eurogroup, without the Greek Minister of Finance Yanis Varoufakis – who has been expelled from the meeting – has spoken.

Since the 20 February 2015 agreement of the Eurogroup on the extension of the current financial assistance arrangement, intensive negotiations have taken place between the institutions and the Greek authorities to achieve a successful conclusion of the review. Given the prolonged deadlock in negotiations and the urgency of the situation, institutions have put forward a comprehensive proposal on policy conditionality, making use of the given flexibility within the current arrangement.

Regrettably, despite efforts at all levels and full support of the Eurogroup, this proposal has been rejected by the Greek authorities who broke off the programme negotiations late on the 26 June unilaterally. The Eurogroup recalls the significant financial transfers and support provided to Greece over the last years. The Eurogroup has been open until the very last moment to further support the Greek people through a continued growth-oriented programme.

The Eurogroup takes note of the decision of the Greek government to put forward a proposal to call for a referendum, which is expected to take place on Sunday July 5, which is after the expiration of the programme period. The current financial assistance arrangement with Greece will expire on 30 June 2015, as well as all agreements related to the current Greek programme including the transfer by euro area Member States of SMP and ANFA equivalent profits.

The euro area authorities stand ready to do whatever is necessary to ensure financial stability of the euro area.

[1] Supported by all members of the Eurogroup except the Greek member.

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Last Monday’s new proposal from the Greek government (attached at the bottom of this entry) for the Eurogroup, less than seven days before the payment to the International Monetary Fund is officially due. The proposal contains 7.9 billion euros in measures, of which 7.3 are from increases to tax and social security contributions in a country that no longer has any tax collection capability.

Alexis Tsipras’ proposal, that will be carried to his meeting with the Troika representatives today, has many possibilities of being rejected by the Eurogroup, as there are important disagreements, even if the mainstream media talks about “progress”. In any case, different European Parliaments (including the Greek one) will have to approve it subsequently in plenary session.

What seems clear is that without an important release of the illegitimate debt, there doesn’t seem to be a fair path for the Greek population, that sees day by day how they are brushed aside by the creditors.

You can download the proposal HERE.