Greece calls for debt write-down

(Vatican Radio) Greece has called for a write-down of its colossal debt after the Eurozone finance ministers approved an 86 billion euro Greek bailout on Friday.

Listen to John Carr's report: 

A government spokesperson in Athens said Greece now awaits what she called ‘a clean solution’ to the intractable 320 billion euro debt that has been the root cause of the five-year economic crisis.  This is believed to be a euphemism for a write-down to make the debt viable.

The International Monetary Fund, of one Greece’s main creditors, has come out in favour of a debt cut, arguing that without it, successive bailouts only put Greece deeper into the red.  Germany, which has taken a hard line on Greece’s debt repayments, on Friday also hinted that some leeway could be given.

All this strengthens the hand of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who got the approval of a clear majority of the Greek Parliament on Friday morning for the bailout memorandum.  He now has more ammunition to fight the dissident left of his Syriza party, which is in open rebellion against the deal.

Meanwhile, the Greeks could celebrate today’s Dormition of the Virgin, a key Orthodox religious holiday, in the hope that with bailout money soon to come in, six weeks of capital controls may be lifted in the not-too-distant future.