Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras under pressure to respond to Drachma plan rumours
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is under pressure to explain rumours that members of his ruling Syriza party intended to return to the drachma by raiding central bank reserves and hacking into taxpayers' accounts.
Far-left members who opposed a reform deal with creditors reportedly developed a covert plan B to save Greece from being unable to pay pensions and wages if it left the Eurozone.
In an interview with Sunday's edition of the RealNews daily, hardline left politician Panagiotis Lafazanis said he had urged the government to tap the reserves of the Bank of Greece in defiance of the European Central Bank.
The main reason for that was for the Greek economy and Greek people to survive, which is the utmost duty every government has under the constitution.
Lafazanis recently lost his job as energy minister after rebelling against the bailout agreement, and has always been in favour of a return to the drachma.
Separately, the conservative Kathimerini daily quoted former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis as saying that a small team in Syriza had prepared plans to secretly copy online tax codes, which would enable the government to introduce a parallel payment system if the banking system was closed down.
Varoufakis denied saying this, however, tweeting that he was impressed by the imagination of his “defamers”.
https://twitter.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/625336067831558144
Whether or not all the reports are accurate, Tsipras now has a lot of questions to answer. The centre-right New Democracy party, the centrist To Potami and the Socialist Pasok, all of which supported the bailout agreement this month, have demanded a response.
"The revelations that are coming out raise a major political, economic and moral issue for the government which needs in-depth examination," they said in a statement.
Is it true that a designated team in the finance ministry had undertaken work on a backup plan? Is it true they had planned to raid the national Mint and that they prepared for a parallel currency by hacking the tax registration numbers of the taxpayers?