Tusk Says Greece Must Bow to Reality as Gambling Now Over

by James G Neuger

June 11, 2015 — 3:02 PM EEST Updated on June 11, 2015 — 3:31 PM EEST

Bloomberg

European Union President Donald Tusk accused Greece of playing games with its future in the euro zone and pressed Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s government to make concessions in order to escape economic ruin.

Tusk abandoned his neutral position as a broker of EU compromises by urging Greece to cut a deal with creditors at a meeting of finance ministers next week.

“The Greek government has to be, I think, a little bit more realistic,” Tusk told reporters on Thursday in Brussels. “There is no more space for gambling, there is no more time for gambling. The day is coming I am afraid that someone says the game is over.”

Tusk’s comments reflect growing exasperation among creditors that the Greek government continues to refuse to bow to their demands, risking a default and ultimately an exit from the euro with potential consequences beyond Greece’s borders.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who held talks with Tsipras and French President Francois Hollande late Wednesday, also signaled that the Greek side still has to budge.

“The willingness is there to cooperate with the three institutions,” Merkel said as she arrived for a summit of EU and Latin American leaders in Brussels earlier on Thursday. “It’s now a matter of acting on that.”

Stocks Rally

The prevailing market sentiment remained upbeat amid optimism that a deal will be brokered. Greek stocks rallied, with the Athens Stock Exchange index up 7.5 percent as of 3:15 p.m. local time for its biggest gain since Feb. 24, when Greece and creditors agreed on a four-month bailout extension. Greek bonds also rose, with the yield on 2017 notes falling 163 basis points to 24.58 percent.

Creditors have previously given June 14 as the deadline for an accord if it is to be approved by national parliaments before the bailout expires at the end of June. Tusk moved that back further, saying the next meeting of euro-area finance ministers on June 18 would be “very crucial.”

That meeting “should be decisive, because we have no more time, I am absolutely sure,” Tusk said. “We need decisions, not negotiations now.”