Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has acknowledged that his government made contingency plans in case they did not receive a third IMF bailout.
In a question time this morning, Tsipras spoke about Varoufakis’ infamous ‘Plan B’, portrayed by the media as an underhand attempt to take Greece back to the drachma.
The plan was revealed earlier this week by ex-finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, and involved hacking into citizens’ tax codes to create a parallel payment system that could easily be transposed back to Greece’s former currency. The plan prompted shock and outrage in Greece as people accused him of ‘plotting’ to take Greece out of the euro.
Tsipras told Parliament this morning:
“We didn’t design or have a plan to pull the country out of the euro, but we did have emergency plans. If our partners and lenders had prepared a Grexit plan, shouldn’t we as a government have prepared our defence?”
He argued that the idea of a database giving Greeks passwords to make payments to settle arrears was hardly “a covert and satanic plan to take the country out of the euro”.
“Mr. Varoufakis might have made mistakes, as all of us have … You can blame him as much as you want for his political plan, his statements, for his taste in shirts, for vacations in Aegina,” Tsipras said.
“But you cannot accuse him of stealing the money of Greek people or having a covert plan to take Greece to the precipice.”
Tsipras’s comments came as final talks begin with creditors to receive an 86 billion euro bailout, as Greece passed the measures needed for it to go ahead.
