France PM rejects ‘Grexit’ as MPs vote for bailout deal with Athens
France’s prime minister categorically dismisses the idea of a potential Greek exit from the eurozone, as the country’s lawmakers overwhelmingly voted in favor of a planned bailout deal between Athens and creditors.
“There can be no ‘Grexit’, nor ‘temporary Grexit’ -- an old, absurd and dangerous idea,” Manuel Valls told French legislator on Wednesday in a thunderous speech.
At the legislature, National Assembly, the lower house, and Senate, the upper house, took turns to overwhelmingly throw their weights behind the potential bailout agreement.
Some of the 19 eurozone countries must approve the agreement through their parliaments before it goes ahead.
On Monday, Valls’ Greek counterpart Alexis Tsipras agreed to the deal, under which Athens must get its parliament to approve harsh austerity measures in return for the start of negotiations on a third bailout of about EUR 85 billion (USD 93 billion).
Greece received two bailouts in 2010 and 2012 worth a total of EUR 240 billion (USD 272 billion) from its troika of international lenders -- the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank -- following the 2009 economic crisis.
Tsipras’ left-wing government had long battled against the economic measures. Athens had refused to agree to the tough reforms before the referendum, arguing that the continuation of the bailout should be aimed at helping the country’s devastated economy without the enforcement of additional austerity measures.
Valls, however, said the conditions of the bailout were “normal,” adding, “If the reforms are demanding, that is because -- it has to be said -- they have never been carried out.”
“I hear talk about humiliation. But humiliation would have been for (Greece) to be driven out of the single currency -- some perhaps wanted that -- while the overwhelming majority of Greeks wanted to keep it.”
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