Greece: Barrosso Interview about Greece; "Unrealistic Promises"; April 9th...What to Believe?

From the BBC

'The Greek government made "completely unrealistic promises" to voters that it cannot now fulfil, the former European Commission president has said... He called on Greece to take responsibility for its financial plight and implement structural reforms, which was now the most important issue for the country...Greece's demands were "completely unacceptable to other countries", he told the BBC's Business Live programme... In the interview, Mr Barroso pointed out that there were poorer countries lending money to Greece who would not support the idea of Greece's debts being written off'.


An article in the Czech journal A2 about the limits of SYRIZA

Ondřej Lánský, Lukáš Matoška
Limity Syrizy - Limits of Syriza
In A2 (Czech Republic), social activists Ondrej Lánsky and Lukás Matoska wonder if Greece's Syriza can deliver on their radical promises and anti-austerity measures. Lánsky and Matoska are sceptical of the ability of parliaments, governments and political parties to effect emancipatory change: "It could easily happen that nothing will remain of the Greek parliamentary revolt but Varoufakis' open-necked shirt. Meanwhile, what continues to be most interesting in Greece is the non-parliamentary protest movement."

IMF Repayment (Reuters)

April 9th? Reuters- Greece tells creditors it will run out of cash on April 9

Mignatiou - Το Υπουργείο Οικονομικών διαψεύδει κατηγορηματικά το ανώνυμο δημοσίευμα του πρακτορείου Reuters για θέματα που υποτίθεται ότι συζητήθηκαν στη διάρκεια του Euro Working Group, την 1η Απριλίου. Τέτοια δημοσιεύματα υπονομεύουν τους ευρωπαϊκούς θεσμούς, τονίζει το υπουργείο.

Kathimerini -  Dijsselbloem says ‘still long way’ to go on Greek proposals

Kicking and screaming to the reform table? Reuters - Neil Unmack: "There is still a wide gap between Greece and its euro zone partners. Tsipras appears to intend to row back on labour reform, push up the minimum wage and flouts lenders’ desire to lower pension spending. These together cost 926 million euros this year. The euro zone is treating Greece with the tough love of an exasperated parent. It is refusing funding, but credit is still flowing thanks to European Central Bank benevolence. Greece can survive in the short-term by not paying domestic bills. It could even find a way to skip payment on its International Monetary Fund loan. The point of no return will be a 3.5 billion euro bond owed to the ECB in July. A default would force the ECB to cut off funding, banks would fail and capital controls become unavoidable. Greece could then chaotically leave the monetary union while Tsipras blames it all on the ECB".

The Telegraph - "Greece is drawing up drastic plans to nationalise the country's banking system and introduce a parallel currency to pay bills unless the eurozone takes steps to defuse the simmering crisis and soften its demands".

Some unlikely scenarios!?

Greek Reporter - "The list of proposed reforms the Greek government submitted to the Euro Working Group in order to close the fifth review is lacking in legislative actions or technical methods that would help achieve the objectives stated, a real.gr report says".

NATIXIS Report

On the leaked list of reforms, enikos