Greek government seeking the right timing to ‘sell’ a deal to the Greek public ...

The Greek PM Alexis Tsipras held a mini cabinet meeting, Tuesday, with Deputy Prime Minster Yiannis Dragasakis and Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos, in light of the positive forecast released by the European Commission on the Greek economy and the statements made by Economic & Financial Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici that a deal with Greece was close. The meeting, which lasted for three hours, focused on the country’s negotiating tactics ahead of the crucial May 9 Eurogroup meeting on Monday, and ways to address the extra €3.6bln measures demanded by the creditors to close the review on the Greek program.

The Greek side aims to table the issue of debt relief during the Eurogroup on Monday. The official line in the Greek government is that a deal is close, however, EU officials told Reuters that a deal on May 9 is not foreseeable. Talks have stalled due to the disagreement between the two sides on the contingency measures and whether they should take the form of an automatic mechanism or go through the Greek parliament. The crux of the matter is whether the current Greek government is willing to sign a deal that imposes new harsher austerity measures on the Greek public that has been suffering over the past 6 years under economic recession caused by wage cuts and high taxation. The Tsipras government is attempting to gain a debt relief promise by its creditors, possibly during the May 24 Eurogroup, to ‘sell’ to the Greek public in exchange for the tough measures it will be forced to accept.