Germany downplayed the chances of an imminent deal with Greece as Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s government rejected the latest terms set by creditors to unlock bailout aid.
The downbeat tone from Berlin reinforced the brinkmanship at play as Tsipras met in Brussels Wednesday with the heads of the three creditor institutions: International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi.
“Our impression is that there’s still a long way to go,” German Finance Ministry spokesman Martin Jaeger told reporters at a regular government press briefing in Berlin. Creditor institutions have made “exceptionally generous” concessions to the Greek government, and “it’s now up to the Greek side to show some movement,” he said.
Stocks in Athens fell as Tsipras dug in over the conditions attached to any accord before heading to Brussels for talks aimed at patching together a deal before Greece’s bailout expires and about 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion) in payments come due to the IMF on June 30.
He took to Twitter earlier Wednesday to denounce creditors for refusing to accept his own proposals for higher taxes, and his government later rejected a counter proposal tabled by creditors, saying it differed little from an earlier document which had also been shot down.
