Greece’s Tsipras defeats no-bailout party rebels

Greek crises has many unanswered questions and silent reservations, where the bailout plan of €86 billion could still be scraped and further developments may experience criminal proceedings, regarding the former finance minister.

The meeting with Greece’s finance and economy ministers got under way at a hotel in central Athens rather than at government ministries, part of efforts to keep the visit by European Union/IMF officials discreet and less intrusive than in the past.

The EU aims to conclude negotiations for a third bailout “with the expertise of the International Monetary Fund, and then to consider debt measures later in the year”, said European Commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva.

The bailout talks must be concluded before August 20, when a debt repayment to the European Central Bank (ECB) worth more than 3 billion euro (£21 billion) is due. And the Athens stock exchange remains closed.

The Syriza troubles have naturally anxious Greece’s creditors, who now wonder openly whether Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will have the clout to clinch a deal three weeks from now.

Tsipras, who turned 41 this week, is trying to regain control after a damaging mutiny by over 30 lawmakers in response to the austerity measures in the new bailout.

“As you can understand, there was convergence on some points, and less convergence on others”, he said.

The leader has now agreed to a party conference in September, which could result in snap elections if Syriza not able to stand united.

“In fact, I issued private directions to the finance minister to create a group that might work on a plan of protection within the occasion of a nationwide emergency”, Tsipras informed parliament, answering a query from the opposition.

“Of course, I personally gave the order to prepare a team to prepare a defense plan in case of emergency”, Tsipras told.

“If our partners and lenders had prepared a Grexit plan, shouldn’t we as a government have prepared our defense?”

Technical talks on whether to provide Greece with a direly-needed third bailout have been followed up by high-level negotiations.

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“. The decision paves the way for the government to complete ongoing bailout talks with creditors in August.

“An exit from the euro…in spite of all the dark propaganda, would in no way be a disaster”, Lafazanis told supporters in Athens this week.

However, Mr Tsipras rejected accusations from some that the blueprint amounted to a “coup d’etat” against his government. Varoufakis had alleged that the objective would have been to create a parallel banking system to cope with a possible closure of the nation’s banks.

But Mr Tsipras said on Friday that he had ordered the plan, adding it would have been “irresponsible” not to do so.