Austerity measures to send Greece directly to hell: Tsipras

Greek Radical left leader Alexis Tsipras

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/05/18/241830/austerity-measures-greece-hell-tsipras/

Greek radical left leader Alexis Tsipras has continued to reject the government’s EU-mandated austerity deal, warning the austerity measures would lead Greece to hell.

Tsipras, whose Syriza party currently leads in the opinion polls, stressed that the international deal that Greece had accepted in exchange for endorsement of the second financial bailout was “catastrophic” for the country. Because rather than rescuing the debt-ridden nation, the deal has led it into its worst economic recession since the Second World War, he added.

"With this policy [bailout agreement] we are going directly to hell,” Tsipras said in a CNN interview. "To save Europe we need to change direction," said the leftist leader who has pledged to fight against the austerity measures imposed on the country by its European neighbors and International Monetary Fund (IMF) earlier this year.

Responding to German Chancellor’s ultimatum, either Greece sticks to cut plans or will be shown the door of the EU, Tsipras said Angela Merkel has put the eurozone in big danger through the austerity measures.

“If Greece goes out of the euro, the second day the markets will find who will be the second, and the second will be Italy or Spain,” he added.

Meanwhile, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on Thursday that the EU will “do all it takes” to keep Greece in the euro area.

Barroso also said that EU will honor its financial commitments towards Greece, but expect the Greek government to “fulfill the jointly agreed conditions for financial assistance.”

Greece is headed for the second parliamentary elections, expected on June 17, following a political impasse that has left the country without a government since May 6 elections as no party gained enough seats in parliament to form a government.