International Monetary Fund is participating fully in Athens debt talks: European Commission

The global Monetary Fund can not participate in another Greek bailout until Greece and its creditors make hard decisions on economic reforms and debt relief, a fund official said Thursday.

The talks with Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos and Economy Minister Giorgos Stathakis follow preparatory meetings in the Greek capital this week between lower-level officials on reforming the tax system and labor market regulations. They have openly voiced support for Greece to turn its back on the euro as its national currency.

The deepening crisis within Syriza is the most serious political challenge to Tsipras, who otherwise enjoys unrivalled domination of Greek politics and remains popular despite his sudden U-turn to accept stringent bailout terms.

According to government officials, bailout negotiations must be concluded before August 20, when a debt repayment to the European Central Bank worth more than 3 billion euros is due.

The central committee’s decision to hold a congress in September, approving a motion by Tsipras, “is a parody”, the Platform said in a statement posted on Iskra, its website named after a newspaper managed by Russian revolution leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.

Far-left dissenters argue Syriza has abandoned its principles over the past six months under the country’s prime minister.

“This nation no lengthy has democracy, however a peculiar sort of totalitarianism – a dictatorship of the euro“, outstanding dissenter Panagiotis Lafazanis stated.

Forced to rely on opposition support in parliament to pass austerity and reform packages, Tsipras is widely expected to call early elections to consolidate his grip on the party once he has agreed the third bailout package with lenders.

But the IMF’s position threatens to throw a huge spanner in the works of the bailout, as Germany is unlikely to commit to a deal that doesn’t include the fund.

“We’ve got to agree that we will’t go on this manner”, Tsipras informed the committee members throughout a 12-hour assembly.

After remaining tightlipped on the matter, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tasipras, while speaking to a parliamentary session, denied any wrong doings said: “We didn’t design or have a plan to pull the country out of the euro, but we did have emergency plans”. “It would have been politically naive and irresponsible not to do so”. But Tsipras said the idea of a database giving Greeks passwords to make payments to settle arrears was hardly “a covert and satanic plan to take the country out of the euro”. Varoufakis had alleged that the aim would have been to create a parallel banking system to deal with a potential closure of the countrys banks.

Tsipras defended Varoufakis, saying the former minister may have made mistakes “but he never moved his money out of the country… and he never hid the names of Greek taxpayers in the drawer”, referring to a series of former finance ministers. The U-turn leaves Tsipras on the same path trodden by predecessors including previous prime minister Antonis Samaras, whom Tsipras had blasted for kowtowing to creditors’ demands. “However you’ll be able to’t accuse him of dishonesty”.