Greece has submitted its proposals to European creditors, according to confirmation from the spokesperson of Jeroen Dijsselbloem, president of the Eurogroup in a Tweet.
New Greek proposals received by #Eurogroup president @J_Dijsselbloem, important for institutions to consider these in their assessment
— Michel Reijns (@MichelReijns) July 9, 2015
Reijns also confirmed that no further comment would be made until Dijsselbloem and his partners had time to review Tsipras’ proposals.
According to reports in the Greek and international media, the measures submitted on Thursday evening involve tax increases and spending cuts worth more than 12bn euro. The amount is significantly higher than the package of cuts that Greek voters rejected in the referendum on Sunday.
But nearly two weeks of a banking shutdown that has brought the economy to a virtual standstill have left Greece with few other options to avoid sliding into bankruptcy and being kicked out of the euro currency zone.
Some concessions include increased taxes in Greek tourist islands and changes to Greece’s pension program.
If the reports are true, it effectively means that Alexis Tsipras has just said “yes” to everything (and then some) that 60% of the Greek people— including himself, voted “no” to in the national referendum last week.
Bloomberg confirmed the plan, claiming that the concessions agreed to by Tsipras are similar to those of the June 26th plan which had originally been rejected by Greece.
Tsipras spent most of the day Thursday shoring up support from various members of his coalition, including members of his own party— including representatives from the far-left fringe of his Syriza party, which itself is a coalition of various left-wing groups.
Helena Smith of The Guardian reports that resistance will most likely come from Panagiotis Lafazanis, who heads Syriza’s militant wing, the Left Platform. Lafazanis, Smith wrote in The Guardian, “has already expressed his wholehearted opposition to the proposed plan saying it fails to give any hope of a breakthrough to the Greek economic crisis.” The Left Platform represents about a third of the party or about 70 members of parliament.
Zoe Konstantopoulou, the fiery president of the parliament and a member of Syriza’s hard left herself, has publicly announced that no new memorandum outlining further austerity will be passed by the 300 seat House. Greek media reported that Konstantopoulou spent more than three hours with Tsipras Thursday evening and left without making a statement.
The Guardian and BBC confirmed that Tsipras had submitted the proposal, “capitulating” to more severe austerity measures in exchange for a modest debt write off and further aid to Athens.