Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said yesterday that he was willing to talk to protesting farmers over pension reform but said it was essential to overhaul the system to ensure Greeks could continue to receive pensions.
Greeks are furious over the plans, which will entail increased social security and tax payments for many groups of workers, and the farmers swiftly rebuffed Tsipras’ offer of talks, pledging instead to step up their blockades of highways.
Greece’s leftist government has promised to reform the costly pension system as part of a multi-billion euro bailout deal with its international creditors, but Tsipras said he was ready to look at helping specific groups hurt by the changes.
“We are already doing that with the self-employed ... we are aspiring to do the same with farmers, provided they want to sit down for a dialogue to find a solution,” he told a cabinet meeting. “We have to be clear that the reform is not optional, or just a conventional obligation of the country. It is absolutely necessary for the social insurance system to have a future.”
Without the pensions overhaul, Greece cannot conclude a first assessment of its broader economic reforms which would pave the way for discussions on sorely needed debt relief.
Elected on a pledge to end austerity only to cave in months later, Tsipras is trying to juggle the competing demands of Greece’s lenders and voters wearied by years of recession and austerity.
Tsipras: We have to be clear that the reform is not optional.
