Greek PM: Creditor supervision of economy to end in 2018
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has said that the Greek economy is turning around and will no longer be under the supervision of the country’s creditors in 2018.
Speaking at the opening of the 82nd Thessaloniki International Fair in Greece’s second-largest city, Tsipras said the Greek economy will grow in 2017 after a 9year recession. He said Greece added 236,000 jobs in the first seven months of 2017, the fastest pace since 2001 and that foreign investors are eager to capitalize on the opportunities.
To back up that point, Tsipras said a French businessman accompanying French President Emmanuel Macron on his twoday visit to Greece this week told him that the once prevalent narrative Democracy party seized on Tsipras’ changed positions and past unfulfilled promises to blast him for his speech. “Mr. Tsipras is funny in the role of a serious and reliable prime minister ... in a tasteless theatrical performance.”
After recalling Tsipras coming to power as an unrepentant demagogue whose high-wire negotiations in 2015 cost Greece “100 billion euros” (in extra austerity measures), the opposition accuses him of “belatedly discovering investments” that he fought against. New Democracy also released, before Tsipras’ speech, a YouTube video purportedly showing Tsipras’ “lies” and broken promises from his 2016 speech at the Fair’s opening.
Another Thessaloniki Fair tradition, protest against government policies, was followed Saturday, but on a relatively modest scale. About 12,000 protesters showed up, according to police.