The Eurozone needs to wait for Greece's new government to make its first moves vis-a-vis, among other issues, the second financial assistance programme for the country, Slovak Finance Minister Peter Kažimír said after a meeting of finance ministers of EU countries in Brussels on Tuesday. He added that the EU respects the outcome of the Greek election, and that Eurozone representatives stand ready to hold talks with any government emerging from the election. When asked whether Greece's sovereign debt is unsustainable, Peter Kažimír said that this was the case several years back. "We've been through difficult times, and we mustn't forget that a lot has been done for Greece in the past two years. The second assistance package for this country involved private assets as some debts payable to the private sector were forgiven as well before the situation in the country began to improve. This resulted in an initial budget surplus, a fall in unemployment and the first indications of economic growth restarting, which shows that the path prepared for EU and international creditors made sense," he said.
On Monday Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) chairman and Slovak MEP Richard Sulík, questioned Syriza's pre-election vows. Sulík brought up what he called a lack of balance between Eurozone economies. "The euro is used by highly productive countries like Germany and the Netherlands and by indebted Greece alike. After the election was won by Alexis Tsipras, who's been vocal about cancelling Greek debt, forgiving the debt is a lot more likely now. It'll cost Slovakia too - dearly," he added. Sulík recollected that Slovakia was the only Eurozone country to decline to chip in towards the first loan to Greece in 2010; in fact it was his party that voted against the bailout package. This move led to the fall of centre-right Slovak Government of Iveta Radičová. The second bail-out package in 2011 passed through the Slovak Parliament, with Sulík's party voting against it.
