ATHENS – If Greece rejects the €130 billion rescue package meant to dig it out of a debt crisis the country will be plunged into a nightmare that it cannot control, Greece’s conservative leader Antonis Samaras said yesterday.
Mr Samaras, whose New Democracy party has regained a tentative lead in polls ahead of a June 17th parliamentary election that may determine the country’s future in the single currency, has often criticised the terms of the bailout that saved Greece from bankruptcy.
Promising to jump-start growth in the economy and to not impose new taxes, he said his proposals would keep Greece in the euro while allowing it to have a more palatable austerity programme.
“Denouncing the bailout will lead to an exit from the euro and Greek living standards will drop by a third in very little time. It will be a real nightmare,” Mr Samaras told supporters.
“Those who talk of denouncing the bailout are like little children playing with matches in a gunpowder warehouse and they are driving us towards an isolated Greece.”
Mr Samaras is believed to have been principally talking about his far-left rivals, Syriza, though he did not mention them by name. – (Reuters)